Scorched Earth
by Dakyu
Summary: Zoph:: 6 years have gone by since Ozai's death, and Zuko is trying to create a new life for himself with his uncle far from the life he had conceived to be living. However he didn't count on something else landsliding into his life: Toph.
1. Chapter 1

The sun seemed lazy today, Zuko observed. Perhaps it was due to the fact that it was the winter solstice, and was the shortest day of the year, or the fact that might have been a psychological effect because it was the anniversary of his father's death.

Or, he mused wryly as a rather uncomforting squelch came from his innards, it could be that damned shopkeeper's stew coming back to haunt him.

He had already been working quite a while by the time the sun decided to show its face over the horizon, peeking over the mountains like a nervous child waiting to be punished by its parents. Sweat had gathered across his brow, his hair tied back in a low ponytail in a lame attempt to keep his wild shaggy locks out of his face, and his "favorite shirt" hanging loosely about his shoulders in tatters, he was less than an image of a dashing prince that many a creepy girl seemed to drool over.

He sighed, and shoved the useless thoughts of the antagonists in his life aside, focusing on the ultra-important task at hand:

Chopping wood for his landlord…

True, it was satisfying work, he scoffed… Here at this inn in the middle of nowhere. The landlord of the area, the self-appointed "mayor" of the town, was rather stupid in certain affairs; however he paid well, and didn't expect either himself or his uncle to clean any of the rooms other than their own.

That was definitely a good thing…he HATED to clean up, whether it was after himself or after someone else. It was something he loathed to do, and most likely had something to do with his royal blood, his uncle had often pointed out. "Princes hate to clean their rooms," he'd say with a hearty laugh.

At such times, Zuko would just indignantly burn the garbage (when no one was looking) and blow the ashes out of the window. (When Iroh questioned his methods, he merely said "fire bending practice," which it was to an extent: it took a lot of control to be able to burn just what he wanted, and leave the walls, sheets, and other items completely untouched by the flames.) It was on orthodox, but it was a 30 second job instead of the usual hour or so that it took.

Terron, their squat and big-hearted landlord, knew of their heritage from the fire nation, however wisely chose not to speak of it. Provided they didn't use their fire bending in public, it was perfectly okay for them to stay and work for him as long as they so wished. Iroh and Terron had become fast friends, and the both of them often had long talks by the earthly fireplace, sharing stories that never seemed to get old. Terron even knew their real names. But since their names seemed to pare in comparison to the names of "Azula" and "Ozai," there was no real concern for them to need to use their fake names, and for that Zuko was grateful.

However, those weren't the only reasons for Terron's want for them to stay. For one thing, Iroh's tea was even more of a hit here than it was in Bah Sing Se, and actually attracted travelers to the point that they made detours just so that they could stay at the inn and have some of his uncle's famous tea. And, as much as he hated to admit it, Zuko _was_ starting to get an acquired taste for the tea.

But no, the REAL reason behind their welcome stay was Terron's daughter: Geeva.

Of all the names, "Geeva" had to be chosen, which literally meant (in the ancient fire texts) "donkey's bride."

Yeah…a real inspiration for him to get married to her, as Terron obviously hoped.

It wasn't that this girl was all that bad…No, that was a blatant lie: she was devil spawn. Selfish, a cruddy sense of humor, and poor manners, among other things, deterred the already non-existent chance of him ever being attracted to her.

She had the same squat figure that her father possessed, and boasted extreme strength when in reality she was just a round butterball. And although he realized that she could do nothing about her height, her overindulgence at the table was enough to leave one scarred for the rest of their life: he had never seen that much liquid squirt out of a woman's nose while they laughed.

Ugh…that _laugh_…he involuntarily shuddered. It sounded like a sound cross between a dying woodpecker, a platypus bear, and some other dying duck all in one that made his ears (and often times eyes) twitch whenever he was unfortunate enough to have the sound rape his ear. That "Kyuk kyuk kyuk" was just something else…

If this woman ever had a husband, (which would never be him, thanks to Iroh allowing him free choice of the woman he married,) he would have to be Buddha or some other deity capable of keeping up with her insanity…

The wood before him split unevenly, and he cursed his lack of concentration, as the end of his axe sizzled slightly and slight chars were visible within the grain of the wood. He let loose a heavy sigh, before picking up an armful of wood turning back towards the inn.

The trees were fresh, and the cold morning frost still clung stubbornly to the pine tree bark around him. It was days like this that he could really think, had he the right mind for it. Today, though, he felt that something big was going to happen. Bad or good, he couldn't tell, but something big.

He rounded a bend in the path of trees, and Terron's Inn (as it was literally called) rose from the shadows and into the vision of his golden eyes. While a palace might have received a fanfare of trumpets and brass, Terron's Inn would receive a melancholy chord of strings. It wasn't a bad place on the inside, however the outside looked like any other woodland inn: a roof carved of tree logs with a base formed from, predictably, earth bending.

The inside wasn't anything spectacular as it was by itself, however Iroh's tea brought a wonderful atmosphere to the place. It felt almost like a home. It wasn't just a logged building, but a place that people could go to rest, and really…just…live…

"Oh Zukie-poo!"

Aaaaaand get assaulted and/or have an attempted rape on him by a portly female who looked more like a cross-dresser than an actual female.

He glared up through his tangles of hair to the third-story window, where his uncle was, no doubt, laughing at him mentally. The aged man shrugged helplessly, before turning around and bursting out laughing inside.

…Note to self…buy daggers, learn how to throw them efficiently, and then destroy something…

Or he could just fire bend the hell out of something…that was MUCH more gratifying! Mm…explosions…

"Oh, Zukie-poo! How I've MISSED you!" Geeva ran forward, slamming her oversized bust into his face while giving him a crushing hug.

"You… (need air…) saw me last night, Geeva…at dinner…" he gasped, his voice muffled by the two fleshy mountains in front of him blocking his airflow.

"Oh, that's right!" she chimed, her voice a forced cheery one, like she was trying to act like some sort of ditz and that would attract him.

He knew all to well, however, that she didn't HAVE to act…

She glanced down at him, and giggled a quick "Kyuk kyuk kyuk," before dropping him to the ground roughly and prancing back towards the inn, singing a quite horrifically out-of-tune song as she bounded…err…bounced, back to the kitchen, where he could hear her slurp up something noisily from within.

He shook his head. Gods, his life was a living comedy act!

Organizing the logs into a semi-orderly pile was a feat that took most of the short day, but he was proud of the job that he had done. So as to avoid any further contact with Geeva, he feigned sickness and swiftly ascended the stairs to his and his uncle's room.

Zuko let out a heavy sigh, before flopping down on the bed and letting out a shout of frustration into his pillow.

"Having fun flirting with our little friend, are we?" Iroh chuckled, tugging slightly at a knot in his beard.

"If you call being suffocated in her chest 'flirting'…" he mumbled.

"Oh? You've gotten that far already?" Iroh questioned in mock surprise. "My, that's usually something that happens AFTER the first date…"

Golden eyes glowered between a layer of shaggy hair and a green pillow. "Her mother must have been a hippo-gator, and she smells like a retarded monkey-bird that can't even clean itself," he monotoned flatly, before letting his face fall onto his pillow.

There was a short silence. "That was a colorful metaphor," Iroh observed.

"Comes naturally when living with you…"

"Ha-ha! True," he commented, before sneaking a glance back at his exasperated nephew. "You know, Zuko, she probably wouldn't chase you if you had a fiancée…or a girlfriend at the very least…"

"Uncle, I don't have time—"

"Time? Pfft! You're 22 now, and you've only had a pitiful number of dates. Circumstances aside, your love life is about as rich as a wind bison's backside! Let yourself live a little, eh?" He leaned down, smirking into his nephew's bewildered face.

"You could either start womanizing a little, or I _suppose_ I could give my consent for you to marry Geeva…"

Zuko was immediately in a sitting position, glaring as hard as he could at his uncle with his jaws grinding together so much it was nearly painful.

"You wouldn't dare…" he hissed through clenched teeth.

Iroh shrugged, before flopping down on his own bed. "I'm going to bed. Goodnight Zuko."

With a snap of the old man's fingers, the candles flickered out, leaving Zuko to fume in the darkness.

Something was going to happen…something that he thought he wasn't going to like…

With a huff, he lay back down onto his hay mattress, and drifted off into a relatively dreamless sleep.

The only image that danced through his mind that night was the silhouette of a single dancing figure against the setting sun.

0o0o0o0o0o0

**True, Toph hasn't appeared yet, however I thought this was a good spot to stop for the moment. **

**Critiques and constructive comments appreciated!**

**I'll update as soon as I can!**

**Dak**


	2. Chapter 2

The sun was, once again, lazy…

Having gotten up so early today, he was able to finish most of his work in record time, with thanks to his incredible fire bending abilities. He had to be careful, obviously, since there were only a select few that were to know of his gift, and hiding was something that he was getting tired of, but his uncle pointed out that bragging power always made people fear you, and would most likely cause a lot of trouble. And trouble, was something that he did NOT need at this point, not when he was living an at least semi-peaceful existence.

Zuko wiped his brow with his sleeve, making a grunt of disgust at his own condition.

He desperately needed a bath…

Sighing, he knew that would have to wait until Geeva was well out of the house on an errand, since her snooping in on him was more than a little unsettling for the young fire prince. A sudden thought occurred to him…maybe he SHOULD look for a woman…that, at the very least, MIGHT deter this young and hormonally driven woman.

Yeah right…as if any other woman besides that frog-brained ball of idiocy would fall for him so easily…

Sighing, he took up an axe and continued his work. It was about the time when people would wake up, and, once again, he would have to hide among the normal folk of this area.

If only he knew how overrated the term "normal" was…

0o0o0o0o0o0

Terron ruffled his bulbous mustache, cleaning out a mug with a spare rag. He took a deep breath of the musty tavern air, before letting it out in a satisfied sigh.

He loved his work. He could get news from practically all over the world from this spot: the money was good, the winters were mild, the people were nice…

"I need a job."

Terron blinked, immediately stopping what he was doing, and glanced over the counter to the owner of the gruff, though feminine, voice.

Slightly bent over the counter in front of him was a young woman who looked to be no older than twenty, hair in shambles around her face in such a way that it hid her eyes. What he could see of her skin was pale, almost a milky-white, peeking out between her locks of hair.

Despite her somewhat dainty figure, her hands were calloused and worn, the fruits of a hard and laborious life. Somehow sensing his gaze had lingered there, her fingers curled into a fist, before they slackened and slipped off the counter.

Terron looked upward across her old clothes and back up to her face. "And what would your name be?"

"Toph," she grunted.

Alright, so she wasn't a chatty person…that'd be a nice change in comparison do his daughter. "Do you mind if I see your face?" Terron asked quietly. "I seldom accept employees if I can't even recognize them."

The young woman hesitated for a moment, before lifting one of her hands to pull back a lock of hair to let him scan her face.

_My, she is quite pretty!_ Terron thought. Her face had the same milky tone that the rest of her body possessed, her cheeks a smooth slope coming to a gentle point of a chin. It was her eyes, however, that disturbed him a little bit.

They had no pupils, no color…almost like some sort of demon's…

"I'm…sorry, Toph," he finally said. "But we don't hire the blind…"

"AND WHY NOT!"

He recoiled at the voice, it was so forceful, and he could have sworn the ground had vibrated from her anger. He swiftly shook it off as a figment of his imagination and continued. "Just the fact that—"

"Fact that _what_?" she hissed, fists clenched.

"Well, most of the jobs we have here require the ability to see different colors, I'm afraid," he quickly interjected. "Unless you have a way to…"

Her anger faded, her earlier cognition that he just didn't want to hire someone blind fading slightly. "No…"

"You seen, most of the work at this inn involves doing laundry, and we have different soaps for different colors of shirts and other such garments…"

"There has to be something else, though, right?" Toph asked, concern apparent in her voice as she spoke. "I mean…what about cooking?"

Something in her voice suggested that was a last resort, he thought to himself. "We're already full on chefs. Plus all of the bottles of sauce are color-coded."

Her brow furrowed in thought. "Well…landscaping? I could handle your garden outside during the spring!"

Terron fought the urge to chuckle at the girl's enthusiasm for getting a job. She must have really wanted to prove herself, but once again he shook his head, trying to convey his apologies in his voice. "That might work, however the bags of flower seeds are also—"

"Color coded…" Toph finished for him. She sighed, leaning more heavily on the counter.

Seeing the girl like that broke Terron's heart, and he wracked his mind trying to think of something. However all of the immediate jobs that he could think of were either taken or involved color of some sort. "Well, what can you do, Toph?" he asked. His voice was even, and a glimmer of hope appeared in Toph's sightless eyes.

"Come outside, I'll show you!" she turned around towards the doorway, before she hesitated, and a sheepish smile came to her face. "Sorry, I forgot to ask if you're on a shift…"

Terron laughed slightly at that. "Of course I can come with you…provided it doesn't take too long, of course!"

A smile came to her face. "I don't think so." She headed out the door, and waited a moment for Terron to follow her.

"Uh, miss? This isn't going to be too noisy, is it? I still have some guests sleeping upstairs…"

Another smile came to her face, though it wasn't the cheerful one she'd had moments before. "No, I don't think so…"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

_**WHAM!**_

The ground shook with an earth-quake like force, causing Zuko to lose his balance, falling flat on his butt and dropping the pile of logs he had been transporting.

"What the—"

0o0o0o0o0o0

Toph stood before her creation, grinning as widely as a child. Terron sat not too far from her, slack jawed. After all, the shock of a stone building being built in a matter of seconds in front of one would be enough to make anyone lose their footing.

The building _was_ rather crude, however with a few more modifications, it could have easily been turned into another building.

"Y-you're hired!" he exclaimed, letting out another few whoops of joy. "You can start this spring!"

"Spring?" Toph blinked. "Why spring?"

"That's when all of the supplies come in for the year, mostly," he shrugged. "Besides, winter's no time to be installing heating systems and the like, even with an earth bender as skilled as yourself."

"So what am I supposed to do until this spring?!"

He pondered a moment. "Well, how good are you at lumber hauling?"

She sighed, and with a quick repetition of movements, a nearby tree toppled, and was moved a short distance, as if she were moving it to a pile.

"Can you cut it?" Terron asked, obviously excited at this new potential money-maker.

Her smile lessened somewhat. "Sorry, no."

"No matter," he said, brushing off the matter entirely. "I have another who'll be able to handle that job quite well!"

"HEY TERRON!"

Both figures stopped at the intrusion of the voice, Terron glancing upwards towards the window of the inn to the originator of the voice. Toph looked in the direction, however she was unable to look exactly at them, so it ended up looking like she was watching a bug climb up the wall, despite her best efforts to look respectful.

To Terron's eyes, it was a middle-aged man glowering down at him from his second-floor window. Blond-grey hair lay disheveled all about his creased face, the scowl all the more deep in his features due to the effects of his age on his skin. His deep brown eyes glared all the more at Terron, the glimmer that had been present in his idiotic stupor of the past night already faded into oblivion.

My, it was so much easier to deal with him when he was drunk…

"Do you mind KEEPING IT DOWN?!" the tired man half yelled, half croaked. "SOME of us are still trying to SLEEP!"

He glanced over towards where Toph had been "working" not moments before. "Oh…sorry…" he said sheepishly, a heavy arm lifted to scratch the back of his head in embarrassment.

The man snorted, before slamming his window shut indignantly.

Toph sighed, her forehead resting in her palm in a very Sokka-like manner. This job would be interesting, if nothing else…

Terron straightened, and cracked his knuckles excitedly. "Well, you go around back, there's a boy back there who's great at cutting wood…you two should be an excellent team!" he rambled, continued on for a minute before Toph deciphered the fact that he was excited about building some new additions in the spring, and that he wanted her to go around back.

"I'll just get to work, then…" she said, walking away as the man continued to ramble about all of the new projects he would start, slightly perturbed at his blatant enthusiasm.

_What have I gotten myself into?_ She wondered. Her eyelids drooped slightly in exasperation, and she sighed for the umpteenth time that day.

_The pay probably sucks, too…_

0o0o0o0o0o0

**Bleh, I'm not too happy with this chapter. Sorry that not much has happened, however I have a college trip this weekend, along with several musical performances, so I figured I might as well get this up now while I have the time : )**

**Thank you for being patient, I promise I'll update ASAP, and as always, comments/critiques are always appreciated!**

**Dak**


	3. Chapter 3

Toph shook her head as Terron continued to saunter about with his words, occasionally letting out a slight whoop of joy only to be shushed by several of his clients in the upper levels of the inn.

It was _so_ nice to be considered a money trinket…

She shrugged as she continued to walk about, trying to find this fabled "wood pile" that Terron seemed to deem so high in value. True, it was the only reliable source of heat close by without fire benders close at hand, and there was plenty of dead wood around to gather, but from the way that he phrased the gathering of it, wood must have been like gold to him.

She smiled as a sudden thought came to mind: maybe his brain was just made of wood…that would explain a few things…

She continued to chuckle as she rounded a bend, and…

Stopped in her tracks.

A rags-clad figure was bent over, hard at work with the venture of hefting a heavy axe over his head. His heart was pounding, though not with fear or anything cliché like love, (at least she hoped not…) but focusing on his hard work and seemingly putting…

Her eyes widened slightly. He was using his chi to add extra strength to his blows…he must have been a very skilled and disciplined fighter…

So why was he working at a slum like this? Surely if he could concentrate his energies like that…? She shrugged of the thoughts, remembering that she was just standing lamely in the middle of the clearing, while this man toiled away at cutting through the logs not too far from them.

Perhaps he had something that made him different too…something, like her blindness, which made people reluctant to hire him in a job.

She stood for another few moments, before she released a light sigh from her mouth. She couldn't just stand, here, so, she figured, she might as well break the silence.

She cleared her throat loudly, and stepped forward, trying her best not to seem like she might be a nervous little girl.

"Ahem!"

Apparently her vocalization startled him, for he let out a strange, very unmanly yelp, combined with a curse swiftly afterwards as his axe slipped out of his hands, only to have the dull side land on his foot, hard.

That must have hurt…

"Yes…?" the figure growled, evidently not used to having heavy objects dropped on him all the time.

Pansy.

"Well…" She paused a moment, surprised that her mouthparts seemed to refuse to work at that moment.

"Yes…?" the figure repeated. "I have work to do today, so if you don't mind…"

"I'm here to HELP with that help," Toph snapped. She paused, correcting herself embarrassedly. "…work…"

"You seem to be learning to speak, that's a good start," the man observed, picking up the axe.

That voice…could it have been? She mentally cursed, as her current angle of perception wouldn't allow her to "see" any distinct markings on his body…he'd need to come closer towards the boulder a few inches or so under ground…

She shook her head quickly, before retorting. "Sorry, it's just that I'm not used to watching people drop their tools and almost chopping their toes off." A smug smile blossomed over her lips when she felt a slight difference in heart beat.

"Well, I'm not used to having nosy and forward girls surprise me…" he snorted.

"'Forward'?" Toph echoed, a slight pang of confusion curling around her usually ever-lasting sarcastic mask.

He paused a moment. "Well…actually, that part would be a lie…"

"Huh?"

"Never mind," he interjected he almost stuttered. "Now if you don't mind—"

He stopped, and she realized why: he had turned around, and saw her for the first time.

Curse her sightless eyes…why couldn't he come closer so that she could at least recognize him over the buried boulder?

"What is it?" she asked in a lame attempt to break the silence.

"You seem…familiar…" the figure said carefully, and to her sharp ears, she could tell he was taking heed as to what and how he said something.

"Do I?"

"I wouldn't say that if I didn't think it, now would I?" he said gruffly, taking another step closer.

Come on…

"Well, what seems familiar about me?" she started, subconsciously coaxing him to shorten the gap between them with her voice.

"That's something for me alone to know."

She huffed. "Well you're nice…" she muttered sarcastically.

"I wasn't the one who decided to come in, surprise someone, and cause some damage," the figure snorted.

Eh, he had a point.

The figure took another step closer, only inches away from the heavy boulder in the ground now. Why wouldn't he just take that one blasted step closer?

"Well, if you care at all, and I'm not really saying you do, you sound familiar too," Toph said half to herself, not really knowing what else to say.

"Feh."

The figure turned around again, looking as if he was going to return to work.

He picked up his axe again, before turning back towards her. "Well, if you're not going to do anything, then you should go back. I have work to do."

Toph's eyebrows lowered, her brow furrowing into a frown common on women three times her age. "Are you sure you don't want help? I'm good at knocking over trees, you know."

She felt the figure turn around once more, and she could feel his eyes burning over her body. Expecting a witty retort of something along the lines of "how could a puny girl do something like that" or a comment along those lines, he instead said "then do it. You knock it down, and I can cut it." With those words said, he turned back to the log he had worked on.

Toph blinked at the strange conversation, however decided to put it to the back of her mind for now. Impatience would get her nowhere right now. Hopefully this familiar though rude counterpart was just having a bad morning (no thanks to her, she thought,) and would eventually warm up to her.

0o0o0o0o0o0

How the hell was SHE here?

It was unmistakable…those eyes, her jet-black hair; that pale white skin that shone like a duller, though much more pleasant sun…

His eyebrows lowered at her last, though most distinguishing characteristic:

Her attitude…

Zuko's axe whistled through the air as it cut deep into the tree trunk in front of him with assistance via controlled fire bending. Nothing major, just a slight heat that would allow the blade to cut easier.

He just hoped that no one would smell the smoke…the last thing he wanted was for a casual traveler to discover that he was a fire bender. This girl, however… "Toph"? possibly? She'd probably be surprised at first, but he doubted that she'd be afraid of him just by learning who he was. Iroh and she had gotten along quite well, as he had heard, so he didn't have to worry about her fearing him.

Quite the contrary…it was he that feared she would proceed to crush him with half of a mountain if and when she got the opportunity…

Shaking his head to file the rather unmanly thoughts to a corner of his brain, (he was, after all, being cautious around a woman who was physically about half of his size…) he noticed that she had quickly went to work, toppling two or three trees in a single swoop with a simple blade-handed gesture from her arm.

They toppled with a groan on par with his uncle who had just settled into his comfy chair and didn't want to move, settling on the ground with a surprisingly quiet thud.

"Did Terron tell you how many trees to knock down?" Toph asked, not really expecting him to answer.

"Check the wood pile. If we cut more wood than will fit in there, we won't be able to use it," Zuko monotoned.

He could feel a slight flare of body heat from her, and could feel her puzzled expression burrowing into his back. Apparently, he had surprised her, and for some reason, that made him feel good for a brief moment.

"Do you remember how much space there is right now?" he heard her inquire again, a hint in her voice suggesting that she was a bit peeved, and this, once again, made him feel better for some reason.

"Not for certain," he continued coolly. "You might want to go check."

Toph rolled her sightless eyes. "Fine, I'll be right back."

A slight smile came to his lips, and he quickly buried under his characteristic scowl of a mask. He was enjoying this far more than he should have, but it was just too fun NOT to do…

He knew that it would probably be the death of him, and what possibly disturbed him most was that he didn't even really seem to care.

_What the hell has happened to me?_ He suddenly wondered.

An approaching source of heat alerted him of Toph's return, as cool as ever, and he turned to greet her.

Well…"greet" her, at any rate.

"Find the wood pile?" He asked off handedly.

"Yes. Did you finish cutting?" she said, imitating his tone mockingly, a slight smile on her face.

Fighting back the growl in his throat, he continued, his voice still cool. "Almost, one second."

He concentrated for a brief moment, before the axe came down in a clean sweep, cutting through several logs at once, all the way to the ground.

Toph's eyes widened at the display, before she stepped closer to inspect the damage. "Nice…" she said, and took another step closer.

She ran a calloused finger along the tree where it had been cut, and recoiled slightly…ever so slightly, as she touched it.

"Fire…" she observed.

It took a moment for Zuko to process what he had meant, before he felt a slight surge of heat from her core.

A split second warning that she was about to move.

His arm muscles still sore from his labor, he could not move quickly, and saw her blank eyes approaching in slow motion towards him. Both of her hands were raised up, one heading towards his neck and the other towards his face.

Damn it! Why wouldn't his muscles move? Why wouldn't they move when it had been a _stupid **hope**_ that the avatar's friends would forgive him for what he had done?

He closed his eyes instinctively, waiting for the ground-shattering blow that would probably take his head clean off his body, or at the very least crush his jaw bones.

Something stroked his cheek, another slight weight on his shoulder: strong, though still strangely gentle and comforting.

"Zuko…?"

His eyes snapped open, and couldn't help but fluster slightly at her severe close proximity. Literally up in his face, being only slightly shorter than him now, a finger danced over his scar, her other hand resting on his shoulder.

If it hadn't been for the axe in his hand right now, it would have almost seemed that they were dancing.

She smirked slightly. "You haven't changed much, have you?"

He pushed her off, almost roughly, and threw the axe in the ground so that it stuck. "No, I haven't."

Turning away back towards the inn, he started to stalk off, until he turned back towards her for a brief moment. "Oh, when we're not around Terron or Uncle, my name's Li."

Without waiting for her acknowledgement, he continued onwards, knowing that her sharp ears would have picked it up easily.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

His uncle was smiling cheerfully as Zuko stormed into their cabin, falling face flat on the pillow and letting out a nice long sight of smoke into the pillow, only to have it curl and lick around his head and pool on the ceiling.

"You have an eventful morning, I take it?"

A muffled "Meh" accompanied by more smoke was his answer. Outside, the ground rumbled, as Toph was apparently transporting the logs over to the woodpile via an earth conveyor belt.

More guests also complained at the noise, but most swiftly shut their mouths as boulders moved threateningly close to the windows.

"I agree," Iroh said, and Zuko raised his head with his single eyebrow raised in confusion.

"To what?" he asked, bewildered. Had he missed something?

"That earth bending girl is indeed a handful, but you'll get used to her…"

Zuko snorted at that. "I don't really WANT to get used to her. She already knows who we ARE, Uncle! This could be bad news!"

Iroh stroked his chin, already covered in a thick beard that reached down to his sternum. "Did she try to kill you?"

"Y--…no…" he said sheepishly.

"She is a fine woman who is a much better at thinking ahead than you think, Zuko," he said, slipping on his work gloves he used for working in the kitchen. "If she were to randomly attack you without you doing anything, it would make her look bad, cost her job, and would accomplish nothing, not even revenge."

Zuko blinked. "What do you mean by that?"

"Because _revenge_ is something that is done to the _bad guys_, my nephew." He started towards the door, the same old beaming smile on his face. "You have a new life, and you're not the same person that they knew Zuko. Your new 'accomplice' may see that. It's you that has yet to realize that fact."

The door shut with an omnificent slam, leaving the young fire prince in almost absolute darkness.

_If he had really changed so much, why did he feel like the same weakling he had always been_?

Turning over, he let out a belch, unintentionally turning it into a small fireball, and let out a curse when a scorch mark appeared on the ceiling.

It looked oddly like Toph with a bad hair day.

"Ugh…" This was going to be a long day.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

**Whoo! Finally done with this one. My thanks to my friend Derrick, who thought of Zuko's ability to sense the heat of others, and will (most likely) contribute to much more humor later on in the story.**

**As for the reason why this story took so long, I have two reasons: **

**one, school. It sucks, yadda yadda, we all wish it would disappear in a mushroom cloud, end of story. **

**Secondly, was the season finale. I had this chapter finished, but once I saw the season finale, I realized that what I had wouldn't go well with what had happened, and this story incorporates Zuko's mixed loyalties and his regrets of what I think will happen at the end of the series.**

**School is rather hectic, so I'll probably only be able to update on weekends, but since I have a nice juicy chunk of time, this may be updated as early as tomorrow. If not, my apologies, but I will continue to update ASAP**

**As always, reviews and comments/critiques are always appreciated!**

**Dak**


	4. Chapter 4

A sharp jerk woke Zuko from his light nap, light swirling into his vision. A second jerk, easily twice the force of the first, sent him flying off his warm and comfortable bed and crashing, face first, into the floor.

"Ugh…" he said, demonstrating his superior intellect.

Blowing a stray frizzle of hair from his face, he got up into a sitting position and re-tied a low ponytail on his head. He began to stand up, when another earthly tremor rumbled through the building, and he nearly lost his balance again.

Toph was having some fun, wasn't she?

Whether she knew or not he didn't really know, but the concept of her knowing she was making a fool out of him seemed to peeve him even more.

Realizing that a flame was starting to appear on his fingertips, he quickly quelled it before anyone could see the blasted flame, and he slammed open the door.

He quickly found his way down into the kitchen, where he found Iroh using some basic fire bending to heat up the burners for the tea, a few of the other cooks (who already knew of their heritage) looking on in envy of their own necessity for using flint and steel.

"Did you have a nice nap, my nephew?" he asked, not turning his head as he carefully mixed the tea ingredients together. "You weren't asleep for very long…it's just about time for afternoon tea."

"I'm not in the mood for tea right now, uncle…"

"Perhaps some coffee, then?"

Zuko blinked. "Coffee? What's that?"

"It's something new that Terron said appeared over in the fire nation and was smuggled out. A tad expensive, but boy, does it wake you up!"

The other cooks nodded in agreement.

He raised an eyebrow, not quite sure what he should have expected from his uncle's new discovery.

Iroh lowered his voice slightly, horrifically serious. "Geeva had some."

Zuko's eyes widened, and then widened even more when he saw a glass of water sitting on the table. The earth was quivering from a constant thudding into the ground, and he had an inkling as to what was causing it…

"ZUKIE-POO!"

"CRAP!"

Zuko ducked underneath the table with a strange squawk, just in time for his heavy-set nemesis to come bounding into the room.

"Oh Zukie-poo!" she called romantically. "Ijustheardyou, Iknowyou'renearby!"

She turned to Iroh, a sweet, though strangely murderous gleam glinting in her eyes. "You wouldn't have happened to see him, would you?"

"Uh…" his eyes shifted from side to side slightly, thinking fast, before he said a quick "he went out back…"

"Oh Zukie-poo!We'regonnagetmarriedandhavelotsofkidsmydadjustsaidsohyeshedid!"

She almost flew out the back door, immediately sprinting after her "onetruelove."

Zuko involuntarily shuddered as he came out from under the table. "That…was scary…"

A few of the cooks cracked up at his observation, though they quickly shut up when he glared at them. "As long as you NEVER give Terron your consent to marry me, everything will be fine…"

"As fine as having a hyper-active love-struck hippo rampaging through the house!"

The cook who had said the comment as well as Iroh and the other cooks burst into laughter, leaving Zuko to simmer in his own anger.

And, Iroh mused, he probably could have had steam come out his ears to add to the effect, though to suggest that right now would further kill his already dead pride.

"Relax, Zuko. Why not take a quick walk outside?"

"Didn't you just send Geeva out there?"

Iroh deadpanned for a moment, before smiling. "Yep."

The other cooks cracked up again.

The fire prince blanched.

"Why not accompany that Toph girl?" a round female cook suggested. "Having another woman around, especially one as beautiful as her, might make her back off a bit."

"I'll consider it," he said quickly.

He left the room, grabbing a small roll out of the breadbox on his way out. "I'll be heating the furnaces," he called back.

Pausing to make sure he was out of earshot, a less-portly cook snickered. "Maybe he can discover his princely charm soon, eh? I hope so, for his sake!"

The other cooks shared in his mirth for a short time, before returning to their cooking for the morning breakfast.

Iroh shook his head, smiling. _You'll be finding that special charm of yours VERY soon, my nephew. VERY soon…_

0o0o0o0o0o0

Zuko fell into a steady rhythm as he began fixing miscellaneous parts of the furnace's various compartments. He was the one who knew the furnace best, as he and his uncle were the ones who had designed it and got it to work, and no one could get it to work quite like he did.

That was, of course, because it require fire bending to work correctly. Or just some portable source of fire, though there wasn't enough room down here for a large pile of wood. Maybe one of Geeva's stupid incense candles…she burned so many of those things in her room all the time that she could have started a forest fire in the dead of winter.

He shook his head, spitting a small blast of flame onto a certain pipe to heat up the water, satisfied when he could hear the water hiss all around him from the surrounding pipes, up and out of the room.

He loaded some wood into a small compartment on the bottom of the contraption, to ensure that the heat would not simply dissipate in a matter of minutes, and, with his bare hands, tested the temperature of the water inside.

His brow furrowed slightly. He had gotten it too hot. Ah, well, they could deal with some water that was too hot for a day…

0o0o0o0o0o

"OWOWOWOWOWOW!"

An inn guest hopped about his room, his skin red from the temperature of the water and steam coming off of his hair. He ran out into the hallway, only to scar the living daylights out of a little girl as his bath towel fell off of his waist.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

He took a wrench from a small box mounted on the wall, and began his routine checks of the various steamers and other such things.

"So THAT'S how it works…"

Startled by the noise, he dropped the wrench and it fell, ever so conveniently, on his bad foot.

"Wow…you have a talent for hurting yourself, don't you?"

He growled at the perpetrator of the voice. "And you have a talent for rudely sneaking up on people…"

He turned his head, glowering at her over his shoulder. She sat on the floor, casually leaning against he wall, pretending to be glancing over her nails.

All the more insulting because he knew that she knew that he knew she was doing it on purpose, do to her sight…or lack thereof…

"Eh, it's a skill. Interesting way to make sure you have a job," Toph said, changing the subject as if it was the most natural way for their conversation to go. "This only works with fire bending, doesn't it?"

"It can work without," Zuko said, massaging his woeful foot. "But it works best with it. Plus Uncle and I are the only ones who ever work with it."

"So no one else can work it right, thus Terron has to keep you two."

Zuko eyed her suspiciously, before turning back to turn a stubborn bolt. "It wasn't done that way on purpose, but I guess it works out that way."

They fell into a silence, interrupted by Zuko's tinkering. He had heard that this girl "saw" through vibrations in the ground. So what was it like to see the world through her eyes, then? Could she see all the people upstairs, going about their business like ants? Feel the water going through the pipes, feel…

Feel his heartbeat?

He blinked in confusion as to why he would have thought something as morbidly romantic as that, if it could even be CALLED romantic…

WHY THE HELL WAS HE EVEN **_THINKING_** ABOUT THIS STUFF?!

"Something wrong?"

"No," he spat.

"I can tell you're lying…" she sing-songed.

"Bleh." He had finished with his work, and began to put his tools away. "Why did you come down, here, anyways?"

"Boredom, and irritating you is entertaining."

Boy, he was starting to hate that smile.

"Besides," she continued, standing up, "I have no idea what to do now that the lumber pile's all set up for winter. What do you do during your free time?"

"Different things," he muttered, his monotoned mask returning to his features.

"Could those different things involve a lyre and flute?"

Zuko froze. "H…How…?"

"Your uncle acts weird when he smells perfume," Toph shrugged. "Besides, it's not like we have anything better to do at the moment, unless you wanna keep on _acting_ like you're working on the furnace…"

Flushing slightly in embarrassment, he grumbled something under his breath which Toph only smiled at as they both filed up the stairs and into Zuko's room.

0o0o0o0o0o0

**Wow…that was a short chapter… 0.o Though I wrote it in about an hour and a half or so, so for what I did, I'm proud of.**

**Anyways, that's the next installment of this little series, I'll update ASAP!**

**Dak**

**p.s. feel free to comment!**


	5. Chapter 5

"THIS is your ROOM?"

"Is there a problem with it?"

"No, no…it's just…simple…"

"Uncle and I like it that way…"

Zuko plunked down on his bed, laying out across it in a relaxed sprawl across the sheets.

Toph stood for a moment, unsure of what to do. Their accommodations were startlingly simple. Of course, considering she had survived with about a quarter of what they had, she couldn't really complain, though it was still slightly startling that the previous prince of the fire nation lived so simply.

Oh, duh, she mentally reminded herself. Iroh was involved here…

He was probably the one that insisted they buy instruments, too, she mused.

Without asking his permission, she stepped over and plopped onto the bed, and smirked internally when he paused, as if to say something, before he stopped and stooped next to the cupboard.

"What's in there?" she asked, a slight sing-song pitch in her voice that just seemed to aggravate Zuko all the more.

"Our clothes," he muttered flatly.

"Ooo, touchy touchy, aren't we?"

"I'm not used to people barging into my room like this…"

"Aw…" Toph said in a mock-babying tone, jutting out her lower lip slightly. "Is widdle Zukie-poo afwaid of having a widdle gowl in his room?"

She felt Zuko's eye twitch, before he turned to another cabinet, and proceeded to rummage around within its musky depths. After a moment of searching, he bore the fruit of his investigation, and turned around with two objects.

From the vibrations in the air, she assumed they were a lyre and a flute.

"Here," he said, and tossed the flute over onto the bed. It landed with a soft thump on the wooly covers, and for a moment nothing happened.

Toph attempted to stare at it, though only succeeded in looking towards the bed post. "What do you expect me to do?"

"Play it."

"I've never even played an instrument!"

She felt him pause, and mused very slightly at a slight change in flow of his chi. Had she just foiled a plan he'd had for her?

He pondered in thought for a moment, before he plopped himself onto the bed (as far away from her without being rude, she noticed,) and began tuning the strings.

She paused for a moment, closing her sightless eyes to truly listen to what he was doing. Music had always been a big part of her young life, (despite the fact that she herself had never played an instrument,) and so had begun to learn tuning, pitch, intonation, and other such things from the servants of her home since she could not appreciate any drawn art.

But how could Zuko so easily pitch this flimsy old lyre?

When she inquired about his, he merely shrugged, and strummed a chord along the strings.

He plucked a string a few times, before he fell into a swift, steady melody. The constant hum of the oscillating strings flipped over one another, before they began to reinforce one another in a gentle rush of sound.

It reminded Toph of when she had stood in a valley while a stampede of ostrich-horses had gone past.

The melody started off with a happy melody, resembling a childhood memory. It was light, careless, and reflected what any life should be like. Ignorant, happy, and free of all petty quarrels and problems that made life seem all but unbearable at times.

This beautiful tune turned even more beautiful, if possible, however the beat slowed to a moderately slow tempo. She could feel Zuko's fingering motions change from quick, sharp plucks of each string to a more lethargic, almost reluctant strum of each chord.

It was sad.

She could feel his face contort into a slight frown; though that was hardly even a dent at how much pain she could tell he was feeling at the moment.

What WAS this song?

He continued, and the notes flowed even more evenly into one another until it seemed he was hardly even trying to play the instrument. More so, was his feelings playing it, and singing through the quiet air in the room.

Since when had he become such a sensitive person?

She almost snorted in mirth. Zuko, a prior nemesis to the Avatar and the conquests of world peace, was a softie…

Toph was snapped out of her thoughts as his playing stopped, the deafening silence like a bang on the head in her music-induced stupor.

Strangely enough, she sensed a bit of amusement out of her counterpart.

"What's so funny?"

He snorted. "You're drooling."

She felt her face heat, and immediately used the back of her hand to wipe off the excess saliva which was, in fact, dribbling from her lips to make a slight damp spot on her shirt.

Ineffectively wiping at it with her hand only seemed to amuse him further, almost to the point where he was outright crying tears of mirth, and somehow more blood seemed to compact itself into her face.

He fell off of the bed laughing, falling with a hilariously dull thud, clutching his midsection for fear his insides might splurt out his laughs were so forceful.

Her dignified mask failing quickly, she quickly made a lame excuse about having to use the bathroom, and stomped out of the room.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

For the rest of the day, Zuko could not see Toph in the same room without cracking up, and though he was usually level headed during the early winter when supplies were low, sensing much of the heat in Toph's body flood her face in that way just made him snort with laughter.

To the point where he avoided her, because Terron gave him a sound scolding at accidentally incinerating his favorite coffee mug from a fiery snot rocket of fire that exited his nose with a comedic boom on the preparation table in the kitchens.

The cooks had just looked on in shock, only to peer over each other's shoulders to glance at the scorch mark that had once been Terron's beloved mug.

Uncle palm connected with uncle forehead, and Zuko quickly excused himself as another explosive snort of laughter evaporated much of the snow from outside.

"Did Zuko get into the marijuana packs again?" one of the cooks asked.

Iroh merely shrugged helplessly, and trotted out to help control his nephew.

"I sure hope not…"

"Wonder what happened…" one of them asked off handedly, dipping a particularly dirty pot into a special cleaning solution. It hissed on contact, and when she lifted the pot handle back out of the sink, she was surprised to see that nothing was attached to it.

"I've never seen him laugh like that…" another marveled. "It must have been something really funny to make him lose control of his fire bending like that…"

There was a muffled "Zu-!" promptly followed by a _BLAM_ that shook the ground slightly, and all the cooks laughed (albeit slightly nervously) at the noise, and proceeded back to their work.

Toph, in the corner, merely blushed harder, and concentrated on finishing her late brunch, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible.

"Oh Zukie-poo!!"

"Ah, crap…" half of the cooks said in unison.

The doors burst open, and Toph beheld for the first time the "sight" of this girl.

And from what she could "see," it was nothing but horrors.

Her body was completely covered in a rippling layer of fat, and her chi was simply haywire: absolutely no training whatsoever. Her mood seemed intent on catching attention, and Toph could really see why Zuko would refuse to consider her anything but a pest.

This girl's voice…shrill at best, was like nails across a chalkboard right in her ear for a blind girl's hyper-sensitive ears, and filled everything in the room with a horrid oscillation.

_Nothing_ like Zuko's voice…or even Terron's or Iroh's for that matter…

As for her clothing…for the umpteenth time in her life, she was GLAD she was blind.

It was a form-fitting dress that had a low cut neckline. Nothing else needed to be said…

"Oh Zukie-poo! My love!" she said as "daintily" as a cow with herpes might have been able to, "Where have you _gone_?"

Good gods, someone PLEASE gag her with a hamster-rat…

She trotted into the room, obviously having attempted wearing some old shoes that were FAR too small for her by the stomping motion she had to do just to stay upright…

This was just too classic…

Toph made a subtle, though forceful, action with her left hand, and the ground shook slightly…

Just as Geeva's foot was about to connect with the floor…

She fell with a tremendous thud, letting out a yelp as she cascaded through the air with her arms flailing.

The cooks seemed unsure of what to do…it was just too funny not to have a contagious grin infect everyone in the room…but to laugh at your boss's daughter…?

Too late.

The cooks roared with laughter, Toph allowing herself a slight grin before she too burst out laughing.

It was at that moment, that Zuko, after having finally stopped laughing and with half of his outfit slightly singed (most likely from another recent bark of laughter) with a very-blackened Iroh following behind him, stepped into the doorway and drank in the image of the face-down Geeva laying on the floor.

That just took the cake…

He burst out laughing again, laughing maniacally, before he rushed out of the room again as more small blasts of flame came, unbidden, out of his mouth about the room.

Geeva tried to follow her love, however she tripped several times (this time without Toph's help) before she started to cry, giving woeful cries about how she would never find a husband.

Down the hall, Toph could hear the horrifically out-of-tune attempts to sing "Oh how I'll wait for you, my love," that sounded like a dying turtle-duck trying to sing it.

All in all, she sounded like a widow-to-be with no faith in her husband…

Toph took another bit of her meal, and took a sip of the tea. It was then that she noticed it had a really strange flavor to it…almost like…

Her eyes lowered. So THAT was it…

"Who made the tea?" she asked politely.

Amid the laughing cooks, one of them wiped away a tear and made himself known.

"Which teabag did you use?"

"We were out," he explained. "So I took some out of the bag there and ground it up so we could use it."

"What does the bag _say_?"

"Um…" she could feel him squint to look at the bag, before he answered with a sheepish "'Sake extract'…"

_Sake?_ She smacked her forehead with her palm. "You might want to re-label that…" she muttered, and around her there were murmurs of agreement.

_Let's just hope Zuko isn't a drunken fist fighter…_she prayed to herself.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Wow, I am SO sorry I haven't updated until now. First the computer crashed and deleted a few of the chapters, then a family trip, and then MORE problems with the computer, then crap with the internet…You get it, right?

I want to thank my friend Lor for helping me develop this story thus far, and also keep a heads up for two events.

For those hardcore Zoph fans, I will be writing a quickie AU X-mas one-shot, which I should be posting in the next couple of days.

And also Lor is writing her own little off-shot of the "Scorched Earth" story, which will be announced once it is up.

Once again, thank you for all of your patience, Reviews appreciated!

Dak


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note (feel free to skip): **

**Alright, I actually DO have somewhat of an excuse for this being so darned late in my update. For one thing, school finals came up and the studying so that I could actually **_pass_** AP calculus was a major issue (especially since my grade in there was rather vital to my college acceptance. Thankfully I passed ) along with a really stupid virus that literally shut down my internet and made oodles of fun for me for the next week trying to get stuff up and running…so yeah, I was trying to backup all of my files, and my original chapter for this got deleted in all the ruckus…**

**Once again, my apologies for this chapter being so long in the update, I hope it was worth the wait!**

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Zuko! You must calm yourself!"

"Yerr…whoza heell-er yoush…?"

"Nephew! Please! Try to clear your head!"

A blast of flame accompanied by the sound of an outrageously loud belch was his response.

Iroh sighed for the umpteenth time as yet again he tried to restrain his nephew. Every attempt that he had made thus far had ended in a hilariously slap-stick ending, while Zuko was still staggering about, small fireballs leaking out of his mouth and nose. His cheeks were flushed, a sure sign of his intoxication, and the more time went on the more slurred his words had become.

This was dangerous…

When Toph saw the whole scene, she was torn between outright laughing at the whole situation, offering help, or just keep on watching quietly.

She sighed. If Zuko burned the entire building down with his explosive flatulence and she didn't help, she'd probably be out of a job…or else doing construction work in the dead of winter, and neither idea appealed to her all that much.

Heaving another sigh, she stepped over towards the discombobulated imbecile. "Alright, let me handle it," she announced dryly to Iroh. The old man looked over in her direction, and gave a silent thank you and stood back, redirecting people away from the spectacle.

Luckily, no one had seen Zuko's "fire bending" (if it could be called that rather than explosive flatulence) as of yet, though from the way it was going, it was doubtful that "little," and quite dangerously volatile, secret could be kept.

"C'mon, Li," Toph said, walking over to the staggering young man. "Let's go somewhere where you can't destroy the building…"

"Hic-EERUUURRRP!" He turned in her direction, giving her a goofy grin before staggering a moment and falling on his hands and knees, laughing shamelessly at his own stupidity.

The earth bender suppressed a gag. "Ugh…why me…"

She heaved him up over one shoulder in a surprising show of strength, but abruptly stopped moving after a moment.

Was he…sniffing her?

"You shmell shweaty…"

In her surprise, she dropped him, and he fell onto the frozen ground with a thud. "ExCUSE me?"

"Hur hur hu-rk…" Zuko hiccupped again, rolling over onto his back.

"Ugh…come on…" she tried to pull him up by the hand, though without him helping her, it just ended up becoming her dragging him.

He grunted in pain as his shoulder came in contact with a rock, and he pulled his hand away roughly. "Owsh…"

"Sorry. But we HAVE to go—EEK!"

She batted him away, in his drunken state trying to use her chest as a "handhold" to get up.

Now plopped down on his butt, he gave her a hurt look, one like a wounded dog for a moment, before then suddenly losing interest, and turned back toward the forest, humming some weird tune on the way that Toph didn't recognize.

"Iroh?" Terron's voice rang out from the inn. "Everything ok out there?"

"Everything's fine!" the old man said quickly.

"Then get in here! The guests are starting to complain! They want some more of your tea!"

"Ugh…" Iroh sighed, giving another silent apology to Toph with his eyes before bolting over to the inn. The last thing that they needed was to have the guests come out to try and figure out what all the commotion was…

"Well this is just GREAT…" Toph muttered sarcastically, "watching" him run off into the distance. "I'm stuck with princess…again…when he's even stupider than usual.

"Hu-rk!" Zuko hiccupped and grinned again stupidly, before falling flat on his face in the snow with a happy grunt.

Toph rolled her sightless eyes, the residual thump on the ground so heavy as to almost be ridiculous. "Come on," she grunted, once again taking a limb to drag him along the ground. "We need to get you somewhere where you can't do any damage…"

"HEY!" he half burped, "I don't wanna go nowhere…lemme go…" he feebly tried to shake her off, though an earth bender's grip was a hard one to break.

"If you weren't so damn DRUNK, then you could stay out here!" she retorted, feeling all the more stupid since he probably wasn't thinking straight anyways. "Besides, do you want people to know who you really are?"

He chuckled insanely. "I already know who I am…I'M LI!!!" he bellowed the last two words, causing Toph to wince at the sheer volume of it.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Iroh scratched the back of his head nervously at the inquiry of the other guests: it wasn't everyday that the ever levelheaded Li just went bonkers... "Uh…he's going through some self revelations, at the moment…"

There were many "oh's" and "I sees," though Terron just gave him a skeptical look.

The old fire nation captain shrugged helplessly, before getting started on making the tea, actually using fire bending to start the kettle, another explosion urging him faster so that he might help Toph.

Mighty earth bender or not…Zuko was powerful, and her stubborn nature probably would not suit this new drunken Zuko…

0o0o0o0o0o0

"WAAAAAHHHH! I DON'T WANNA GO!!"

"Come on, you stupid crybaby!" Toph yanked on one of Zuko's legs, trying (though to no avail) to pry Zuko off of a tree. "We have to GO!"

He gave her a deft kick to the shoulder, and she promptly dropped his leg, which quickly latched itself around the tree like a koala.

_So much for a _**mature**_ drunk…_

She growled, pushing up the sleeves on her shirt in the "tough guy" fashion. "Alright, that's it!"

Lunging at him, she propelled herself at the ground, launching a small avalanche of moderate stones at him. Many cracked pieces of bark off of the tree Zuko held, and a small cloud of dust rose in the air.

From an onlooker's point of view, it might have seemed that Zuko had been obliterated, but closer inspection of the scene would have revealed a furrow carving out Toph's brow.

She had _missed_…

With a wave of her hand the dust dissipated, and she had to suppress the feeling of a sweat drop when the "sight" before her revealed itself.

Zuko, hanging by his legs from a branch, and sleeping. Snores and all.

Sighing again, she stomped over towards the tree, and gave the trunk a good slamming punch. Ripples of vibration oscillated up the tree trunk, sending a hapless chip-squirrel or two flying in its wake.

It reached Zuko…and nothing happened.

She could feel his tassels of hair rippling from the effect, but he himself hardly moved. Well this was new…

She released another powerful punch, though it had the same effect.

"Zuko, you need to come _down_ from there…" she said in a voice that almost sounded like a mother lecturing their child.

A light snore was her answer.

Ugh…

She stomped the ground, letting lose another volley of earthly missiles, though to her surprise he immediately let go of the branch, floating through the air to land on one hand, then flip sideways right at her.

So caught by surprise, his kick to her stomach and the two of them collided into the ground, Toph on the bottom..

"Ha ha…you fell for it!" he said, alcohol-ridded breath blasting into her face and nostrils. "I pretended-ed I wash ashleep…and you fell for it! Haha!"

Toph's face turned red when it registered what position they were in, and her sightless eyes narrowed dangerously. She felt him give a look of confusion, before an evil smirk came over her face.

_**BAM!**_

Zuko whimpered pathetically as his "man's most prized possession" was rammed with a solid block of earth. Immobilized for the moment, she shoved him off of her. And while about to give him a witty retort, her eye twitched in annoyance.

He snored again.

A fist clenched in anger, she attempted to stomp down on him, only to have him roll out of the way, JUST out of reach. She tried again, and again, only to have the process repeat over and over while the ground beneath them sunk slightly.

Letting out a below of a yell, she let loose an enormous punch that caused the ground itself to shake, and Zuko to actually roll all the way out of the way this time.

"You little bugger!" she yelled. "Why do you fight like that?!"

A snore was her only answer.

"ARGH!" She charged, ground shaking as she approached, while Zuko continued to sleep peacefully on the floor.

Her fists connected with the ground again and again, each time creating a gargantuan crack that Zuko seemingly slithered away from each failed attack.

Had she been watching someone else fume over fighting an opponent like this, she would have laughed her head off, assuredly, however in this sort of situation when it's YOU that's being insulted…

Well, Toph wasn't very cool when it came to being the butt end of a joke.

Cheeks flustered from rage, she let loose a battle cry and charged once more. With a stomp of her foot, the ground turned into a tidal wave. To this, Zuko merely rolled over it, falling flat on his face and, predictably, still sleeping.

Forgoing all earth bending altogether, Toph got up close and began to try to punch the crap out of this man who, DRUNK, was so easily besting her. Zuko weaved around her attacks almost carelessly, wavering so much it seemed like she could have snapped him like a twig in the wind with a single blow.

That is, if she could even LAND a single blow…

Launching herself sideways, she let loose an assault of rocks from all angles, which he nimbly dodged, flipping and spinning and such a way that made him seem almost like an air bender. While Toph "stared" in bewilderment, he somehow got sideways momentum, allowing him to collide (face-first) into a tree, before regaining his balance and running up the side of it.

Switching tactics, she attempted to make the ground more like quicksand in order to mess with his timing; to her dismay, however, the gravelly snow atop the ground didn't really prevent traction from being made. Their battle moved about the forest until they came upon a small frozen pond, where the lack of traction only seemed to make him even more unpredictable, and when he actually _did_ lose his balance, his hand (seemingly) lashed out randomly, the unclenched fist connecting with her jaw and almost spinning her with the force that it exerted.

Zuko landed face down in the snow with a weird "splut" noise on the ground, snoring again, while Toph reeled at the impact, a hand going to her throbbing jaw.

Wait a second…had he just…he had just HIT her!!

_How come he can't fight like this when he **isn't** drunk?_

She growled at the pain, already feeling her jaw line swell slightly where she had been hit. One thing was for sure, he was one HARD opponent…he hadn't even started to use fire bending yet! This fact made her stagger mentally, as she had always been so used to being the "top dog" as far as fighting went.

She'd have even given Aang a run for his money, should they have sparred again. Or at least she told herself that. With this new arrival of a _drunken_ Zuko, her thoughts about herself were being challenged.

And being unsettled was NOT a good thing for such a powerful earth bender: one needed a good base, a strong solid core that you could base everything off of. Hesitation led to defeat, that was one of the first things she had been taught.

Upon looking at his "slumbering" form, a small smile came to her lips. Defeat, or in this case humiliation, at any rate.

Possibly (or arguably affirmatively) against her better judgment, she rolled back a sleeve, getting into a better stance in the snow. This would end soon…one way or another…

"Well, I hate to do this to you, princess…"

"PRINCESS?!"

"What the—"

Zuko was immediately on his feet, scrambling around for no apparent reason, searching around clumsily as though he had lost something.

"Wheresh da prinshesh?"

"Uh…"

"Prinshesh?" Zuko immediately proceeded to dig through the snow, until he came upon a rock smaller than his hand, which he then looked under with the same question.

Toph resisted the urge to let her palm collide with her forehead, and let loose a small tremor that, surprisingly, caused him to fall over on his butt.

Half expecting him to retaliate, she braced herself, but to her surprise he just got back up and started looking again.

"PRIIIINNNNCSHEEEEESSSSHHHHH!" Zuko bellowed. "WHERESH ARE YOUSH?!"

"Is Zukie-poo calling for her princess?" a voice called out through the snowy woods, a voice whose very sound made Toph cringe when she heard it.

It was Geeva's voice. And from the vibrations coming through the ground, she was getting closer.

Oh gods…

"Oh, ZUKIE-POO!!" the un-goddess-ly woman squeaked as she came into the area, brushing past Toph with no recognition for her injury or even acknowledging her existence. "Where have you been! It seems like YEARS since I've last held you in my arms!"

Zuko turned bloodshot eyes towards her, a look of genuine confusion adorning his features.

"Hur?"

Geeva looked slightly confused at his revelation of intellectual brilliance, but that confusion was gone in a heartbeat. "Oh, my Zukie-poo is just overwhelmed with feelings of love! Come, come to me, my sweetie Zukie-poo!!!"

"Why ogre-rocksh calling me?"

Toph choked on air at the statement.

The rotund woman looked taken aback for a moment. "Did…didn't you just call out for your princess? I'm HERE! Are you so delirious from love that you can't even take in the sight of me?"

At that moment, the earth bender standing nearby had to fight down a tidal wave of phlegm.

"You not prinshesh…you ogre-rocksh talking to me…" Zuko's eyes wandered as Geeva looked shocked at his words, before they finally settled on Toph off to the side. "Ah, THERE be prinshesh!"

Toph's eyes widened in slight horror at the statement. It was so cruel to say that to a girl…but she couldn't help feeling…smug? …when he had said that.

He staggered towards her, getting so close that she could actually smell his horrendous alcoholic breath, but with a final confused sigh he slumped forward and, predictably, started to snore again.

This time, however, the surface meeting his flushed cheeks was NOT snow. It was, instead, the fabric of Toph's tunic, his nose positioned in the ideal spot for where a lover might put it during…certain…

She felt herself heat up radically, before trying vainly to push his dead (snoring) weight off of her chest as she lay on the ground where his drunken tackle had left them.

"YOU'RE his princess?!" Geeva exclaimed, obviously horrified. "Zuko?! **No! I thought we had something _special_!!!**"

She ran off through the wilderness, ramming headfirst into a tree with a very unwomanly "oof!" before she righted herself, once again resuming her childish whine back towards the inn in a fit of half real and half fake tears.

And here Toph was, with a drunken passed-out man sleeping on her chest…

Fate had a sense of humor, she decided, grimacing as the slightest trail of drool leaked out of his lips.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

**Yay randomness! Once again, terribly sorry about all of the mumbo jumbo that's been going on in my life that's been meddling with my fanfiction writings **

**MUCH credit goes to my friend Lor for this chappie: both for many of the jokes as well as helping me work out some of the bugs in this story. Thankies!!**

**I'll update as soon as I can!**

**Dak**


	7. Chapter 7

The first thing that groggily swam into Zuko's tormented mind was that, indeed, his head hurt. His head hurt like a Toph-had-just-slammed-a-giant-boulder-on-it kind of hurt.

What the hell had HAPPENED?

A hand rushed up to meet the unwelcome pain in his throbbing brain, but he instantly regretted it due to the fact that since his reflexes weren't still on par with what they usually were, he only succeeded in smacking his already-sore skull.

He winced, his already-wounded ego crumbling down to nothing with the thought that if Toph were here she'd be laughing her brains out at him.

Not that he'd blame her… if she'd done the same thing, he'd have laughed, (a rare occurrence in itself,) he told himself logically. Though, if the male ego was logical, half of the world's wars would not happen…

A small thread of mumbled curses drooled out of his mouth, and he righted his damage-inflicting hand so that it rested on his temple. He made an attempt to massage his temples, though a new headache came on and made him wince visibly.

This wasn't going to be a good day, was it?

He waited what seemed like a midget-sized eternity for his headache to pass, though the fruits of his waiting were less than encouraging. Sighing against the throbbing behind his eyes, he gently eased himself up, his already wounded pride getting another pang as he cursed himself for his own weakness.

And _how_ the hell had he gotten here again? His tormented mind let out a throb of protest as he tried to sort out all of the random images that flew through his head, not the least of which was one of a VERY close-up picture of Toph's chest. He blinked as the image stuck in his head, before the image faded into blackness, though not before feeling a slight warmth up against his cheeks, both from the image and embarrassment.

No way was_ that_ real, at any rate…that was a scene that was like medusa's stare: you could only enjoy it once…

"Feeling better, nephew?"

"Ugh…" was his intellectual response.

Iroh chuckled slightly, before handing the young man a cup of tea. "Drink up, this will help the headache." He couldn't help but smile slightly as Zuko gave him a slightly skeptical look, before he downed the entire cup quickly.

"Augh!"

"Tea is often served warm, nephew. Usually people blow on the cup to cool it slightly before they drink it…"

Zuko gave him a glare, coughing and sputtering slightly as the tea went down, before he regained his composure (albeit slightly) and groggily turned towards the old man. "How long was I out?"

"A day. It's almost lunch time… and it's pig-sheep burger day, too!" Iroh subconsciously licked his lips.

"Ugh…Uncle, can you please talk about something other than food…I feel like my insides are about to come up, and I wouldn't be able to clean it up right now…"

Iroh let out a laugh, before he picked up another glass of water that had apparently been sitting on the bedside table, which his nephew eagerly snatched and drained to cool his scalded throat.

"So, what do you remember?"

Zuko thought for a moment, before uncharacteristically shrugging carelessly. He was obviously more focused on his drink and trying to relieve the pain. "Except for a few random images and the pain? …the random images and the pain…"

"Be careful Zuko, you might actually develop a sense of humor…"

"And become more like you? Hopefully not…"

"You DID just drink tea…"

There was a pause. "Shut up, Uncle." Zuko muttered.

Iroh let another chuckle lose, before he sat down on in a nearby chair. "Well, I suppose it's for the best that you don't remember, then…"

Zuko blinked in confusion. "Remember what?"

A chuckle. "You apparently had some spiked tea, Zuko. You got drunk, and are now suffering your first hangover." Oh, how the prince HATED that smile right now…

He let out an exasperated sigh before flopping back onto the bed with a dull thump. Man, his life sucked right now…

"The tea takes a little while to start working, but come on down for breakfast after you feel better."

Zuko winced as another pang raked through his head, but managed to utter "What about firewood?"

"Toph took care of that," Iroh said, a hint of amusement coating his voice.

"Toph did? Why?"

"Probably to get away from Geeva…"

Zuko rolled his eyes. "What's she doing now?"

To his chagrin, the older man chuckled again, though before he could respond with a comment of any kind, there was an ear-splitting crash from down in the kitchen accompanied by a very un-effeminate screech.

"I was hoping that you could help explain why she says you've broken off your engagement with her…"

"What? I never—"

"WHERE'S! MY! ZUKIE-POOOOOO!!!!!" a roar of a voice came from downstairs.

"I'd have to say, nephew, you have one of the most interesting love life's I've ever seen…"

Iroh only got a growl as his response

"What exactly happened out there?" the old man asked after a moment. "All I remember was Toph dumping you on the table before stomping off towards her room…"

"She 'dumped me'?"

Iroh blinked. "Well, I guess it was more of a 'slam' now, wasn't it? Hah hah hah!"

Zuko winced. So THAT was why his back hurt so much…

"After you're ready, I suggest you go downstairs and maybe get something to eat. You haven't had anything for quite a while now, after all…"

_BLAM! CRASH! Rattle rattle rattle!_

"ZUKIE POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"

"And if you can, please talk to her so she'll stop ruining the inn?" Iroh said, a hint of nervousness sneaking under his mask. "Terron said that if anything else broke it'd be on our paychecks…"

Zuko rolled his eyes. That was all he needed…

0o0o0o0o0o0

When Zuko groggily came down the stairs, the effects of an explosive tantrum were immediately apparent. Random pieces of furniture were thrown askew throughout the entire living quarters of the cooks and maids, splotches of food sticking to the walls and even the ceiling in some parts.

A portly cook came out from behind a tipped table, having obviously been using it as a shield. However it was the placement of a to-small pot on top of the man's enormous cranium that almost made Zuko choke from surprise.

"What in hell have you DONE to that poor girl?!" the cook exclaimed. "She's like a raving devil bird!"

_More like a hippopotamus seal with a glad problem,_ Zuko almost retorted, but he held his tongue. "I don't know. Where is she? Maybe I…" He paused here, trying not to shudder, "maybe I can lure her away from the inn…"

The cook blinked, obviously disbelieving what he was hearing, but he nodded anyways. He pointed down the hallway. "Just follow the screams and random sounds of destruction…"

Zuko couldn't resist a bewildered blink. "Thanks… I think…"

He continued through the corridors, and his arm came up in the nick of time to incinerate a flying chair.

In front of him stood Geeva in all her un-flattered manner. Her hair was disheveled, springing to electrified attention as if spurred by her pointless rage. Her eyes screamed murder, her clothes slightly torn in places from who-knows what, and her too-plentiful bosom heaved from her efforts, which from the sheer TRASHED look of the kitchen must have been some feat.

Zuko could only stand in disbelief as Geeva once again turned her tantrum towards some innocent wooden chair, which was promptly smashed into toothpicks.

He realized then that he had never had a spark of fear from a situation so hilariously ironic.

It was then that her fiery green eyes focused on Zuko for the first time. The fury in them faded, although Zuko had the feeling that it would be a very brief time that before she started destroying things again, and she immediately started towards him.

"Oh… Zukie-poo… I thought that…" her voice was timid, almost slightly pitiable for a moment.

Zuko found his composure, and solidified his traditional scowl that often adorned his features.

"Thought that what?" he said a little more harshly than he meant to.

"Oh, my ZUKIE-POO! Your feelings for me have returned!!!" She stampeded towards him, stray chairs scattering every which way as she homed in on her target.

"I'm. NOT. YOURS!" Zuko bellowed, his voice booming through the room, and stopped Geeva cold.

He had never seen her look so uncertain in all the time he'd known her, and inside, he winced.

"Yes you are…" she said, as if trying to reassure herself. "You…"

"I'm going outside," Zuko said flatly. "If you want to keep talking, follow me. Terron's going to start fining uncle for the things that YOU have broken…"

He could feel Geeva heat up in the beginning of another rage, but he promptly left the room before she could start destroying anything else.

The contrast of the crisp winter air was a refreshing contrast to the boiling heat that Geeva seemed to be emitting, and he let the cold air fill his nostrils and lungs, willing himself to relax in preparation for the storm to come.

This was not going to end well, he could tell already.

Her flaring heat was unsettling, and his immediate inclination was to move away, to let the flames pass around him and dodge the matter entirely. His instincts were screaming at him that this was stupid, that it wouldn't end well…

But it could, would be even worse if he tried it some other way, he mused wryly. For the umpteenth time in his life, he wished he was more like Uncle, in his cheerful way that could get stern lessons across but other's people love for him never wavered.

Unlike Zuko, whose fire of rage scorched all who it touched. Iroh's was warm and pleasant, almost like a comforting summer breeze.

So here he was, to resolve an issue where someone was going to get burned…

And only one of them here was a fire bender.

"Zukie-poo… I don't understand what's going through your head, but if we're going to —" Her infuriated voice fell as she saw the intense look in his eyes, golden irises burning into her own.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out other than a soft indistinct squeak. She had to wait until he had actually turned around so that her vocal chords would work.

"What's happened between us?" she finally said, hurt un-eloquently hidden in her voice.

"Nothing," Zuko said softly.

"'Nothing'?" She asked incredulously. "We used to be friends when you first arrived! And my daddy even said that you'd marry me someday, and--!"

"Nothing happened to us," Zuko repeated softly. "There was nothing to begin with."

He could almost feel her face contort and morph into a face of hurt. "That's not true… we were gonna have kids, Zukie-poo… we were…"

"Not going to do anything like that without my say in it too," he finished for her coldly. There was a pause at that moment, and a cold winter breeze ruffled through his black locks, making them snake and swivel like they were alive.

It made him look inhuman.

"But Daddy said—"

"Your FATHER does NOT control ME!" Zuko half erupted. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe I wanted a _say_ in who I married?"

"I-I…"

He felt his voice rise, but didn't care. "Or maybe your FATHER is just my boss, and nothing more than that? Geeva, he doesn't choose who I get to marry, _I_ do!"

A tear burst from her green eyes, running down a fat cheek. "B-but… I thought…"

He whirled on her, golden eyes blazing. "That I'd want to marry _you_?" Zuko spat, but instantly regretted it. The river of tears was beginning to flow more rapidly down her fat cheeks, and her breathing was coming in soft hiccups.

"It's because I'm ugly…" she slowly looked up to meet his gaze, muddy green eyes glazed with tears. "…isn't it?"

He could see it in her eyes. Her wanting for him just to say that he loved her and whisk her away to some castle in the distance, give her the relationship and family that she so desperately wanted. Take her away from the horrific reality that she…

That he didn't want her; that he found her unattractive. And it then occurred to him that he probably wasn't the first. No… he was probably one of many…

"No," he lied quietly.

A faint glimmer of hope rose and faded in her eyes. "Then why?" she sobbed. "Why doesn't anyone _like_ me?"

His cold fury was completely gone by this point, and his gaze fell to the ground as he turned away. "I don't like people controlling my life Geeva. That's my reason," he said simply. But through it all, he could tell that she knew he was lying.

As he turned away, he felt another heat presence behind him as Geeva's angry flame turned to a simple ember, doused by grief and sadness. This other one, a familiar one that usually made him feel better just by being there, was forced out of his mind for the moment. Their inner fire, usually a fiery inferno of independence and self assuredness now turned to a tender flame, as if a single breath would snuff it out. It was what happened when someone was horrified or shocked by something.

His stomach flipped.

A heavy sigh escaped his lips. To feel the heat of fire, something else had to burn…

Yes, he thought to himself, his subconscious spitting the words like poisoned water, he was indeed a fire bender to the end.

His father would be proud.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

**Wow, it's been a long time, hasn't it? Eheh… (scratches back of head nervously) I can't really say how sorry I really am for making you guys wait so long for this. I'm currently doing a musical production, and I haven't had a scrap of free time for what seems like (and very well could be) months. That, being sick for a while, college stress, a few martial arts injuries, and you have a grand old time with no time to write **

**I hope this chapter was worth it, and perhaps this chapter explains a bit more as to why Geeva acts the way she does normally.**

**I hope to start another chapter tonight. 'Til next time!**

**Dakyu**


	8. Chapter 8

It was funny how much it really made him feel sick. Just having the little round butterball enter his thoughts was enough to make him queasy.

While this was nothing new, this time it wasn't for the normal reason.

Terron refused to look at him, obviously uncertain about how to deal with how his employee had just treated his sole daughter. More than anything, it was possibly how Zuko had made a liar out of him.

After the way he had acted… Zuko sighed as he saw Terron give him a glance that seemed like a cross between fatherly rage, a look of concern for him, and a look of hurt on par with that of a wounded animal.

His tea sat cold in front of him. His uncle's favorite tea, he mused.

The cooks quickly finished their rounds of cleaning up the kitchen, most giving him at least slightly sympathetic looks as he sat alone at a table. But all too soon, they disappeared to their quarters to stay out of the unpredictable Terron's way.

He was alone. And this time he truly felt alone.

Iroh had respectfully kept his distance, and he appreciated it to an extent. Still…

Why, now that he was finally rid of Geeva's extreme flirtatiousness, that he felt like he'd done nothing but harm?

He was a _fire bender_… that was for sure…

"_To feel the flame's heat, something else must burn, my son. If your feeble little mind can't grasp the concept of __**anything**__ else, just remember that..."_

"…_flame's heat…"_

Was this what this was, now? The "heat" of another person's suffrage?

He scoffed, putting down his tea so hard that the cup cracked a bit. Fire… the element of power… forever burning, forever bright… forever scorching…

Forever killing…

He shook his head, before unceremoniously tossing the cup into the sink, and breaking out into the cold winter air.

The dead of winter was what some called it, but the own inner firestorm of his emotions kept him warm enough in the frigid twilit night. There was no moon in the starry skies that night. Just the simple twinkling stars that glinted and winked at him from however high the sky was.

A sigh came out as a blast of heat, though no fire, as he remembered vaguely hearing that the stars where actually giant balls of flame thousands upon thousands of leagues away… But if that was true, then was it possible to actually see them up close? To see these gods of fire "in person"? Or were people just destined to only see their glinting memories of their glories past?

He scoffed. When had he gotten so horrendously philosophical?

Shoving the thought into a dark and cluttered part of his mind, where he was certain to never find it again, he trudged off into the darkened night, deeper into the woods where he often times got the firewood.

There, he found his axe still resting in the stump where he had left it yesterday. The blade had been recently sharpened, only two days prior, so sticking it into the stump had been so easy as just thrusting the thing downwards, and the blade had cut through the ancient stump like hot cheese.

A thought occurred to him: why was he even looking at it?

He knelt to the ground, and leaned over towards the tool, running a hand along the handle of it. It was hand carved, he knew, as he was the one who had carved it several years ago, when his uncle had just announced to him that they'd finally be able to have a nice place to stay. A place that, provided they didn't blow their cover like he had almost done yesterday, they would be able to keep.

But after what he had done to Geeva, _would_ they be able to stay? Had he just blew it for himself and Uncle?

His calloused hand slid down the handle of the axe, finding its familiar place on the grip almost like an extension of his body. This axe had been one of the few things that had stayed the same over the past few years… along with Geeva's incessant declarations of love, until now. It felt good to have something so familiar in his hands. Things were going to change… he could feel it, so to have something with him like this axe would soothe him to an extent.

But where would he be bringing it? he wondered.

He yanked it out of the stump with a small grunt of effort, letting the semi-heavy object rest in his hands. As a weapon, it was a rather pitiful: too short and too heavy for anything practical other than to block something like a sword. But, for the purpose it was forged for, it had served him well over the years. It had given him a job, and with a job came money, and with money came food…

However, money here also translated into rabid girls whose daddy's had convinced them that some random stranger wanted to marry them…

He shook his head, lowering the axe so it hung at his side. Why had his life been such a mess? Did the spirits like to have a living comedy act, or what? To make him destined to betray both sides of the war, and to only have one sole companion for the rest of his life? Technically, he knew, he could befriend any earth kingdom girl, marry them, and then supposedly live out his life "to the fullest" and no one would ever know the better. He would have a brief chapter in the history books… probably with the nickname of "the betrayer" or something horribly cliché like that… and then have his chapter quickly concluded with the message that he ran away and was never seen again…

Zuko felt his eye twitch at the thought. Damn his pride to hell…

His gaze shifted upwards, up a wounded tree trunk to the stars. Were there truly gods guiding his path? Was there a thing called fate? Was there—

"Isn't it a bit cold out to be star-gazing?"

The voice startled him, causing him to drop his axe, which, predictably, fell onto his foot. He let out a yelp of pain, before turning to glare in the direction of the voice's owner.

About to let out a witty retort, the sight of the pale face stopped him cold. Her?

Even in the moonless night, he could have sworn he saw her characteristic smirk come over her features. "I see you haven't learned any grace since we've last spoken…"

"And I see you still have the same disregard for people's privacy…" he growled half-assedly.

Her grin only widened. "Touché."

Zuko plopped down onto a nearby log, massaging the sore extremity with both hands, and to his surprise she walked closer to him as he did so. He considered glaring at her, but immediately dismissed the idea. He was too tired to care, and he didn't need her gloating at how stupid and immature he was acting…

Because even though he knew she couldn't "see" facial expressions, he knew she'd be able to tell when his glare was only half-hearted.

"I heard what happened…" she started quietly.

The snow stood silent around them, the air suddenly becoming deathly cold.

Zuko resisted shivering, and stopped massaging his foot which had suddenly stopped hurting. "I know."

There was a silence, and he could feel her shift uncomfortably. "That wasn't your fault, you know…"

His body tensed at her words. Not his fault? How wasn't it? He felt his inner fire suddenly turn into a volcano, threatening to blow at any moment. Strain obvious in his voice, he calmly let out a string of words to form a sentence. A sentence so calm, it was dangerous.

"How do you figure _that_?"

"Well, this wasn't the first time you asked her to leave you alone, was it?"

His breath came out in a restrained hiss. "No… it wasn't…"

"Then, why are you so upset? She gave you no choice."

His eyes snapped open, his golden eyes almost glowing with anger. "No… _choice?_... You think I had _**no choice?!**_"

Toph backed a step. "I…"

"_**I**_ _**had not choice but to become like my father?!**_"

She winced.

His voice roared through the silent forest. The two of them stood deathly still, the only sound that could be heard Zuko's heavy panting, slight blasts of flame leaking from around his lips.

"You're not like him because of what you did…" she whispered softly. "You're much more of a man than he ever was…"

Zuko's temper instantaneously stopped flaring. It didn't abate, but neither did it increase at the rate it had before. She took his silence as a cue to continue, and she stared right at him, her pale, calm orbs meeting with his molten ones. "Your father was a fool, and a self centered one at that. He followed in _his_ father's footsteps to try to become a world conqueror and throw the whole world out of whack without a second thought, as did your daddy's-little-girl sister did too. They didn't try to figure things out for themselves, like you did…"

He could feel his own heat starting to die down slightly, and his fists stopped clenching themselves. He couldn't stay angry… not when she looked so… vulnerable to him.

She swallowed, and moved slightly closer to him. "You fought on both sides, Zuko. I know that. But you're with us now, and you know in your heart where you belong…"

"I don't know _where_ I belong anymore…" He sighed, getting up from the log, the pain in his foot long forgotten, and trudged in the snow a few steps, Toph remaining motionless where she was, as if he might come back to that same spot if she just stayed.

"Everyone sees fire benders as the enemy now…" he said more to himself than to Toph. "Uncle sacrificed everything for me… almost his life a lot of times…" He looked skyward once more, towards the burning stars and the traces of the gods that might not even exist.

Was this all that some people were destined to do? Just look up in wonder at what others of the past had erected, just to be stared at in awe?

"I remember my mom once telling me that we all had our place under the stars." He turned to her, and wondered if she could sense the small smile that came over his face.

He saw her face fall slightly.

"She always said… that we could always find a start and follow it to destiny…" A wry chuckle escaped his lips. "Maybe that's why I was always so confused… I was trying to follow two stars at the same time…"

Toph raised her head, still not facing him, but her soft voice was still loud enough to reach him in the lifeless night. "Do you think we've found ours yet?"

His head almost snapped itself off his neck he turned so quickly. "What?"

"What your mom said… our place under the stars…" her voice was barely audible. Whatever had been left of his anger was now gone, and was replaced with a new kind of warmth that he hadn't felt in his entire 22 years. It wasn't the burning fires of rage and emotion that he often channeled into his fire bending… but it somehow burned fiercer, yet at the same time was warm, inviting.

He walked up to her, the scrunch of the snow beneath his boots the only thing he was aware of besides this new warmth and a new sensation he didn't expect to feel here.

His own beating heart.

His hand seemed to go on its own accord and rested on her shoulder, his other hand bringing up her chin with his other hand. For the first time, he could stare into her eyes, her true soul. They weren't their usual blank grey orbs, but in the late night twilight they glinted a strange and beautiful silver.

"I've found you, haven't I?"

Her mouth gaped for a bit, before she smiled. A true, unalloyed smile that made Zuko's inner fire flare up again, swell and threaten to consume him.

It was the best feeling he'd ever had.

She suddenly lunged forward, her arms wrapped around his neck, her nose nuzzling into his shoulder. He stood stunned for a moment, before he hugged her back, swinging her around in a strange embrace that he'd never felt before. Because if his heart swelled any more, he was going to…

_Bonk!_

Zuko, flabbergasted, sat sprawled on the snow as an impish Toph smiled like the Cheshire cat above him.

"What the hell was THAT for?!" He barked, his golden eyes glaring for all their worth, before he realized that she probably couldn't see it anyways, which made him all the more angry.

Her grin seemed to widen impossibly more. "For making me feel girly."

His face blanked, mouth hanging open, staring at her face as she continued to grin incessantly. She broke out in a small chuckle that gently grew into a greater laugh. The laugh was infectious, and soon he too was laughing.

"HEY! CAN YOU KEEP IT _**DOWN**_ OUT THERE!! SOME OF US ARE _**TRYING**_ TO SLEEP!"

There was a slam of a window shutter from the inn, but this only brought more laughter from them. Toph offered a hand down to the splayed Zuko, and heaved him up.

With an unspoken word, they both headed back towards the inn, smiles threatening to split their faces, and walking closer than they might have before.

Toph suddenly paused, her brow furrowing slightly in concentration.

That vibration… was that… Aang?

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

**Wow… three weeks overdue and this is all I have to show… hides behind a rock to avoid thrown objects **

**I'm sorry! I'm sorry! My life was really crazy with finals, graduation, and trying to find a job and other miscellaneous crap in my life (like friends moving away and possibly getting cancer . ) However, much of that chaos has died down some, so and update (unlike last time) should be around the corner soon enough.**

**Thanks again to all of my reviewers and to Lor, who has helped a great deal in the forming of this fic.**

**Reviews, as always, are greatly appreciated!**

'**Til next time!**

**Dak**


	9. Chapter 9

**(Rubs back of head awkwardly) it's been an entire month, has it? Ehehe…. **

**I'm terribly sorry about not updating sooner, however Dakyu now has a freakin JOB to deal with, and it eats up so much time and leaves me so little time that it's outrageous, and I'm ticked as all heck about it…**

**Especially when you work at a "screwing factory"… (cough)**

** . **

**Anyways, I hope this chapter is worth it, the plot should begin to pick up a bit after this, so enjoy:D**

0o0o0o0o0o0

There were a few things that blared Zuko's thoughts when he was roused from sleep the following morning:

Firstly, that he was nice and warm.

Secondly, much of the heat that he was feeling wasn't from his own body nor from the now-petered-out embers from the fireplace.

And thirdly, he could just _tell_ that someone was staring at him…

Well _this_ was freakin' interesting…

He tried to rouse himself, only to find that he was pinned down by a very warm weight on his chest and abdomen. Blinking his eyes in a subconscious urge to get accustomed to the light of his surroundings, he was immediately rewarded with the sight of unkempt black hair spilling out over a face, accompanied by the sound of slight snoring. Arms draped over him, the figure's head was positioned in such a away that they would have been able to listen to his heartbeat when they slept. The figured stirred slightly, before pulling themself closer to him. He blinked in sudden realization:

…Toph was _sleeping_ on him…

"Enjoy your night, I take it?"

Despite his uncle's statement being just a whisper, Zuko felt the urge to jump in surprise, but managed to suppress it to keep the slumbering form from being woken up. No, instead of being woken up, she instead snuggled closer and hugged her body closer to his.

So THAT'S why he felt like he was being watched… Figured.

"I guess…" he whispered back, scratching his head slightly and yawning.

Iroh chuckled at the sight, before he leaned close. "I'm very proud of you, nephew, but maybe next time you won't fall asleep in such an obvious place…?"

Zuko blinked, before looking about the room. Well, it wasn't so much a room as a dining hall…

Wait… he had fallen asleep in the inn's dining hall? With Toph?!

Ohhhh crap…

The fire prince felt a slightly cold sweat come to his brow as a barrage of questions pummeled his not-quite-awake-yet mind. How many people had seen them? What time was it? Did Terron see them?

As a small string of them came out of Zuko's mouth unwittingly, Iroh simply put a hand on the tortured boy's shoulder, and his crazed babbling came to an abrupt halt.

"Easy, Zuko. No one has seen you… yet… but I suggest taking her to your room before you continue on, yes?"

Iroh's comment earned him a full glare from the young prince, as well as a "how the hell do you expect me to do THAT?" look.

The aged general shrugged, before walking over to the kitchen. He had tea to make, after all.

Zuko cursed his luck, before he contemplated nudging her awake. The thought soon vanished from his mind, however, as another thought of Toph being caught being "girly" again foresaw some pain on his part. No, he'd have to _carry_ her up, and hope to the gods above she didn't remember sleeping on him.

…How did that happen, anyways?

He sighed once more, and by some stroke of ingenuity he managed to scoop the slumbering earth bender in his arms bridal style and head up the stairs towards the living quarters.

On his way, he passed the kitchen, Iroh giving him a "knowing look" that made his insides knot uncomfortably. He spurred himself to move as quickly as possible, however not quite fast enough to evade the gaze of a few of the cooks. They gave him silent whoops that didn't go unnoticed by him as he passed, and he sighed.

He ascended the stairs, and she moved unconsciously in his arms. He looked down at her as he wedged a door open with his foot, pausing to look at the young woman who was, by some weird clumsy hand of fate, was now resting in his arms. Her shoulder-length raven hair now hanging down past her shoulders towards the ground, her face was in plain view for him to see. The smooth skin of her face painted a beautiful milky white, and he couldn't help but smile as her as she shifted once again.

He had found _her_… maybe _that_ what was what his star was trying to guide him to…

Shaking the thought from his head, he gently opened the door to his room and set her on his bed, before mentally kicking himself.

Wait… Why had he brought her _here_ instead of her _own_ quarters?

He sighed, before slipping his arms out from underneath her, and sneaking quietly towards the door. With a last look, he closed the door behind him, leaving the slumbering girl in complete darkness.

However if only he had stayed a moment longer, he would have seen the knowing smile on her face, and heard her mumble "idiot" under her breath, before snuggling into the covers of his bed.

This was going to be _too_ fun…

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Very smooth, Zuko."

"Yeah… too bad you don't have that much luck with women ALL the time, ha-ha!"

The cooks shut up when the prince growled, but the silence was short lived before they nearly broke out into rolling hoots of laughter, gasping and tears falling from their eyes.

Zuko took a cup of tea from his uncle, sniffing it to make sure there was no sake extract in it this time, then taking a sip and willing the liquid to help calm his nerves. He was going to need it today, he could tell.

The cooks soon lost their mirth, and began the morning preparations for the breakfast to come. It was noticeably quieter that morning, and it didn't take long for Zuko to realize whose absent presence made that possible.

He snorted slightly. Having the once-brilliantly bouncy dame from hell enter his thoughts wasn't going to help him right at the moment. With a will found from intense meditation, he flamed her ass to a back and dusty corner of his mind and took a cup of tea to calm of nerves.

He had the feeling that something was going to happen today… something that was going to be rather… painful…

Zuko sighed, watching the steam waver as his breath flowed over his mug of red-colored tea. It was always interesting watching tea simmer. Iroh had once told him that every cup of tea had its own aura, its own slightly different and distinct smell that made each cup unique and all the more enjoyable, and now he was beginning to see how.

No two wisps of steam were QUITE alike, he was now noticing. And while they all flowed upward steadily, it was amazing to see how they interacted. Sometimes they would all wave upwards, kindred spirits as they were born from the surface of the tea, weaving up above until they eventually dissipated into the air around them.

Birth… kindred spirits… dissipating and disappearing…

He gave a wry smirk. No wonder why his uncle liked tea so much. Everything seemed to actually make _sense_…

Zuko's mug of tea now drained, he set it down with the other cooks, and they took it from him, the portly figures snickering behind food-covered hands.

The young fire prince's eye twitched slightly, but he shrugged and let it slide, even letting out a small laugh himself. If he fought it, it was only going to get worse, after all. And if he said something particularly stupid and woke Toph up upstairs with their laughter…

Well, he didn't want to think about that right now. It seemed like a good day so far, despite glaring indications that it wasn't going to be. Waking up with Toph laying on him… that was definitely something few men could brag about… of course, whether or not he was going to live from the experience later was debatable.

And just what the heck had happened to them, anyways? In the space of a day, their iffy friendship had just flipped on its head and attempted to earth bend water...

He found his way heading out of the kitchen towards the stairs to the customer's rooms, still pondering, brow furrowed in thought.

What had happened? Was this truly a fateful star that had led him to this life? Not to the fire nation's throne, but to a little blind earth bending girl that would kick his ass anywhere anytime?

"Zuko…?"

The foreign voice stirred him from his thoughts, and for a split second, his face held a fake smile in an attempt to persuade the customer that he was, in fact, Li, instead of the fire prince.

Instead, searing brown eyes below a blue tattooed arrow glared at him with a murderous rage, his entire body beginning to quiver with untold power.

…Fate had a sense of humor, didn't it?

0o0o0o0o0o0

The next resulting boom was enough to wake up the entire village, and with good reason, as an entire section of a wall had been blown outwards, an already-battered looking Zuko flung out of the gaping hole like a rag doll.

He rolled to cushion the blow, however after being taken off guard like that, it wasn't an easy thing to recover swiftly from.

A small groan escaped his lips, and he rose shakily to his feet, golden eyes glaring at his tormentor: none other than Aang, the Avatar.

Still as bald as ever, his entire body had filled out into a young 18-year-old frame, the beginnings of a mustache beginning on his lips. His previous air bending gi had been ditched for what looked like a previous Dai Li robe with the sleeves cut off, allowing his muscular arms to come into view. His shoulders were broader, and his height had skyrocketed… even from this distance, Zuko could tell that the avatar was easily half of a head taller than him.

It was not his body that held the fire prince's gaze, however, but the piercing brown raging eyes.

"So this is where you've been hiding, Zuko… we'd thought that you'd been killed after we destroyed the fire nation's castle…" His voice came out slightly ragged, as if his rage left him empowered. "We've been wondering where you and your sister ran off to…" He paused a moment, pulling up to his full height, the hiss of wind wrapping around his arm audible even from Zuko's distance. "Where is she, anyways?"

At this Zuko almost outright laughed. Why would he care for his sister anymore? Then again, after what he'd done, that made sense… but nonetheless, the idea of it at this point was somewhat ridiculous. "I don't know," he said with an off-handed shrug. "And if I did…"

Aang's eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't tell me?"

At this Zuko chuckled, and seeing the avatar become even more aggravated was actually quite entertaining, if he didn't say so himself. "She would come after you first, so there'd be no need, is what I was going to say, Avatar…"

The bald man snorted, the hiss of wind now increasing in pitch to an ear-splitting whistle. "Well, it seems we can finally settle this then, doesn't it?"

It was Zuko's turn to snort now. "To what point and purpose, Avatar? If you still think I'm with the fire nation, (which I'm obviously not…) ANY fool would realize when the war has been won. My father died six years ago, or didn't you notice?"

"Yeah, I noticed," came the growled response. "It wasn't hard to realize that fighting the entire royal family at the same time was going to be difficult, but we won, now didn't we?"

Zuko gave a wry smirk, shaking the kinks out of his left arm that he had landed so ungracefully upon. "Yes, we did."

At this point Aang gave a startled blink, before his brow furrowed in another death glare. "Changing sides at this point isn't going to save you, Zuko…"

He saw the avatar rushing towards him, as if it were something from another lifetime, someone else's dream. The sound of the hissing wind died down, the entire world slowed…

The fire bender's eyes slowly closed, the only sound that he could hear was his own breathing, a gentle, calm thud echoing in his ribs.

Pulsing heat…

A flowing river…

A path for energy to follow…

Cold fury…

…power…

His senses were suddenly assaulted by an onrush of information as time's pause abruptly undid itself: the flaring rage and heat inside the avatar's body, the glaring red of the fire and wind combination flaring up in his fingers, the cold of the snow against his light boots, crisp cool air against his brow…

And the feeling of focused emotion swelling in his chest.

The avatar's first strike was undoubtedly quick, however it was a fairly basic fire bending move, the only difference was that a miniature tornado now backed up his attack, making it much more potent than it would have been under normal circumstances.

Nevertheless, the fact that it was one of Zuko's first-taught fire bending moves was its weakness.

It was a standard right-handed lead, and a quick duck and sideways step allowed him to completely dodge the technique. The familiar heat of human-generated fire blasted above his ear, as his right hand found the avatar's wrist, flipping him over his shoulder and into the snow.

The avatar blinked stupidly a moment, before rolling out of the way from an attack that the younger man expected, however Zuko only did half-heartedly, his foot crunching into the snow almost sluggishly.

Aang rolled, and with a fluid sideways motion of his arm, the snow before him quivered.

Oh yeah… Aang could water bend… great…

His feet suddenly swept from under him in a great torrent of water, Zuko quickly rolled as Aang pulled the water back, only to have the water re-form as ice shard projectiles, stabbing into the cold soggy ground.

One nicked Zuko's arm, but he took no notice of it as yet another wave of water rushed at him, nearly hissing with its speed. It was too wide of a wave to dodge… far too large…

In an incredible spurt of inspiration, Zuko crouched to the ground, before letting loose a gigantic fireball right into the heart of the water wall. Most of the water flowed around him, instead getting a hot blast of steam in his face.

He looked back to the inn quickly. No one had seen him fire bend yet… but that fact was probably only a matter of time unless he could end this quickly…

Flipping over another whip of water, blocking an ice shard with a small fire shield, he ran towards the enraged avatar with surprising speed, his body a steamy blur as he flew over the frozen earth.

Still blinded by rage, Aang stomped the ground and waved a hand like a wave, the snow and earth swiftly turning into a frozen quicksand. Any other fighter would have fallen into the watery earth, but Zuko's mind was focused, while Aang's was a turmoil.

All he had to do was read his movements. Anger created a blind focus: it sometimes gave you power, but it also left you equally vulnerable.

And when you were a fire bender, giving yourself to anger was a death wish: both for yourself AND to the surrounding area. Did Aang, the young little ingenious air bender that had seemed so willing to make the sacrifice to save the world, still not understand how to control this curse?

Zuko swore under his breath. An angry avatar who couldn't completely control bending yet was a huge danger… maybe he could—

Any further thought was lost as he was suddenly tripped by another whip of water, now sprawled out on his back. He saw the silhouette of Aang up in the air, one of his legs encased in an earth binding technique, and coming down towards him at an astonishing speed. He attempted to move, only to find that the water was holding him down like a set of shackles.

He couldn't move, and Aang was about to crush him.

Shit, he'd have to use…

Before he could finish his thought of possible salvation, a quick succession of things happened at once. Firstly, he heard an incredibly painful whacking noise in tandem with Aang's previously confident pose to a half-fetal position with both of his hands clutched over his groin.

Secondly, he felt the grip of the water shackles weaken, and he quickly rolled as Aang plummeted from the sky to crash into the ground with a dull crash, the young avatar crumpling to the ground with a very unmanly groan.

He looked up to see an incredibly disheveled Toph, her head a bushy mass of unkempt hair, scratching her side lazily with an incredibly annoyed look adorning her features.

"Sheesh, twinkle toes… you haven't seen princess here in five years and the only thing you can think to do is to attack him?"

Aang squeaked in response, rolling over to reveal the gigantic sledge of rock that had wedged itself between his legs, and Zuko winced visibly.

The earth bender gave an exasperated sigh, before using a quick flick of her wrist to summon the source of Aang's pain back into her palm, crushing it in the next instant. "Men…" she muttered, walking over to Zuko and offering him a hand.

The fire prince blinked, bewildered, then took the hand she offered and pulled him up.

"Aang!"

Both of their heads snapped towards the sound, and both groaned inwardly.

"Aang! Aang! Are you okay?!"

"Nice to know you're concerned about _me_ too, Katara…" Toph muttered sarcastically.

"Oh hey, Toph." Katara said quickly, crouching down before her beloved Aang and resting her hand on the Avatar's groin, her healing light coming into view and Aang's expression shifting from a look of disgruntled pain to one of peaceful pleasure.

"Ew…Katara, can you NOT pleasure your boyfriend in front of us?" Toph gagged.

"Pleasure…what?" Katara blinked stupidly towards her earthen acquaintance, who promptly connected her palm with her forehead.

"Does she seriously have no idea?" Zuko asked behind his hand, to which Toph gave a tiny shrug. As "pure" as her character claimed her to be, considering how fast she had come to heal Aang after he had been hit _there_ suggested other not-so-pure ideas as motivation.

He grimaced at an unbidden mental image.

Aang sat up, his face turning into one of annoyance, turned towards Toph. "Why did you stop me?!"

Katara seemed to snap out of her trance, the sudden idea of her old friend turning on them to protect the fire traitor, sending another glare in Toph's direction, which Zuko noticed bemusedly would go completely unnoticed by her.

Although, it was nice to know the order of Katara's "most important" list: Aang's crotch #1. Ties with friends, #2. Of course, if she HADN'T had that mental order, then she probably would have attacked him along with the avatar… and that probably wouldn't have worked too well, even with _that_ technique…

"Because, Twinkle Toes," Toph stated flatly, thankfully breaking Zuko from his disturbing line of thought. "Princess here is on our side, or haven't you noticed?"

"But he…"

Toph gave another exasperated sigh. "Aang, you're the AVATAR, you're _supposed_ to seek forgiveness and give it to others. Zuko had a pretty fucked up childhood, (insert fire prince wince here) as did _you_. And yeah, he was confused, but I've been living with him for the past 2 months, and he hasn't tried to make ONE move on me so far…"

Zuko blushed intensely at the innuendos therein.

"The war's over, Aang. You're supposed to be helping the peace… not delay it…"

Aang blinked and then sighed in defeat, but shot Zuko one last glare as he roused himself (and making no effort to remove Katara's hand from his groin) and trudged back towards the inn.

"The first thing you can do, Twinkle Toes," Toph started, causing the avatar to look back at her over his shoulder. "Is rebuild the side of the inn… and THEN go back to going at it like rabbiroos…"

Katara flushed redder than any of Zuko's fire. "We… we are NOT… I mean…"

"We can tell you're lying." The fire/earth bending duo muttered flatly in unison.

"Besides," Zuko continued, an unbidden smile dominating his face. "Your hand is still on Aang."

She looked down, quickly pulling her hand away and stomping back toward Terron's Inn.

Aang quickly followed her towards the inn, apparently not happy with the idea of Katara leaving him so soon, rushed over to her side and started spewing out some sort of apology, most assuredly guaranteeing some sort of make-up session tonight.

Zuko and Toph both gave muffled laughs, then allowing the crisp winter air to circle them both.

"Thanks." Zuko said simply.

"Your welcome. Anything to get on sugar queen's nerves."

Another light chuckle escaped from Zuko's lips, and he gestured for Toph to go ahead in a mock gentlemanly fashion.

She giggled slightly in return, flashing him a slightly seductive smile as they both entered in through the inn's main doorway, hilariously small in comparison to the gaping hole left by a lack of wall.

Toph gave him one last wink, which looked quite ridiculous under her gigantic bushel of unkempt hair, heading into the kitchen to get some breakfast and attracting the looks of several of the customers, even away from the giant hole in the wall.

Zuko's love-struck expression was broken by Iroh elbowing him in the ribs. "What?" the prince snapped.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, nephew, but I found _these_ on your bed…" He held up a pair of what looked like worn undergarments with a single finger, and Zuko blinked. They looked used, and they weren't his…

"These appear to be a pair of female undergarments, nephew… care to explain?"

Zuko blanched, not able to comprehend just how they had gotten there. Until he saw Toph's knowing smile from the kitchen as she headed up the stairs to wash up.

That little…

But he couldn't help but chuckle too. After all, who wouldn't chuckle at the thought of having your guiding star leading to a woman who leaves her underpants in your room?

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Damn that Zuko… Damn him! damn him! DAMN HIM!!

Geeva sat at a bar in town, pounding her plump fist into the table with each thought of Zuko's face.

He had never once smiled for her… He HAD been promised to her, her daddy had said so… Zuko was _hers_…

And yet just after a few DAYS with him, this.. Toph… had stolen him from her heart. She knew he was lying when he'd said he'd never marry her… Oh yes, she knew. He was just playing hard to get, that Zuko…

She would finally be his… and he would love her, just like daddy promised…

"Damn you, Zuko!" she half screamed, attracting attention from men all around the bar, all of whom had ignored her. But soon that would all change… she'd have someone to love her... "Damn you for denying your feelings for me!!" Geeva choked on her tears, one or two flowing unbidden down her chubby cheeks to splash on the wooden counter in front of her.

One of the figures in the bar suddenly rose, flowing across the floor in quick, graceful steps that at the same time boasted power and wealth, almost as if the darkly cloaked figure was of royalty…

"My dear girl, what has little Zuko done to you?" a deep, feminine voice cooed.

Geeva couldn't help herself. She blubbered and snotted all over herself in her unsuccessful attempt to relay her feelings towards this complete stranger.

"Calm down, calm down, my dear girl…" the voice purred, a light hand placing itself on Geeva's fatted shoulder. "What would you say to fighting fire with fire?"

The girl looked up to the hooded figure with wide eyes, and she caught a glimmer of golden eyes before her gaze snapped down to the glowing blue flame caught between her fingertips.

"All you need do is tell me where he is, my dear girl… All you need to do is tell me where Zuko is…"

0o0o0o0o0o0

**Wow… I'm rather evil, aren't I? Yet another cliffhanger and make Katara and Aang horny teens and add an insane fangirl who's obsessed with Zuko… OMG!!**

…**Wait, that's normal with these guys, isn't it?**

**Sorry if they seem OC, but hey, they'd have raging hormones… go figure…**

**My sincerest apologies for not updating for TWO FREAKIN MONTHS… but alas, I have a job and college and a bunch of other stuff going on simultaneously, so when and where I can update is going to be a bit of a doozie…**

**But, in other news, I have a quickie announcement to make: Scorched Earth may become the very first Zoph lemon (yayness!) Depending on reviews and how much people like the idea, I'm willing to write it, so if you'd like to see it happen, vote:D**

'**Til next time (which hopefully won't be two months)**

**Dak**


	10. Chapter 10

**I hoped it wasn't going to be two full months… but alas, it was (cries)**

**College is fun folks, however I never thought I'd have so little free time to write ******

**Anyways, apparently the Zoph lemon is a go in a few chapters (or I may post it on adult ffnet since I don't want to get my account banned, hehe) since so many people liked it… although StarUchia… you might want to calm down a bit…it's nice to be enthusiastic about a story, but being **_**that**_** excited over lemons…**

**Well, to each their own, I suppose.**

**The lemon won't be for a while yet. But with that said, on with the story!**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

Zuko blew off some steam from a cup of one of his favorite flavors of tea, letting the stinky wisps of steam circulate the room. As bad as it smelled, it tasted extraordinary… besides, it was fun to see his bald (or was that bald-_**ing**_?) prior enemy wrinkle his nose whenever he passed.

Ah, the small pleasures in life…

It had only taken moments for the wall to be rebuilt to prevent the freezing winter air from blowing inside, a quick earthbending move from Aang showed that despite Katara's potential "distraction" for him, his training hadn't slacked off. At least not to the extent one would have expected…

The ex-fire prince let out a hearty belch, smirking mentally as Aang once again wrinkled his nose as he passed, Toph coming down the stairs after he did, coming to sit down next to Zuko, her own cup of tea in hand.

Strange how she had it already, since he hadn't seen her go into the kitchen… he shrugged to himself, dismissing the thought as the dark haired earthbender seated himself next to him with a very un-Toph-like warm smile.

"Morning," she said cheerfully.

"…Morning," he said back, slightly bewildered.

"What?"

"N-nothing, you just don't seem like a morning person." He muttered quickly, not quite sure what to make of this slight character change.

"I'm not. But I can smell that stinky tea of yours all the way in my room." At his bewildered expression, she merely responded "Well, not everyone wakes up to the smell of roses, eh?"

He blinked again, before shaking his head with a slight chuckle. This was going to be an interesting day… one of many, he hoped.

Katara soon plopped down across from Toph with a plate of breakfast, occasionally giving Zuko a quick glance of a half-glare as she started to nibble on her plate. Aang quickly followed, seating himself next to his girlfriend… or even wife, perhaps… his face a stony glare in Zuko's direction.

The fire prince didn't let it affect him, instead letting a soft belch roll across his lips into the air at the bald monk, giving a smile as the avatar wrinkled his nose from the stench.

This was becoming _too fun_…

Katara coughed uncomfortably as Zuko's golden eyes met Aang's grey-brown eyes with a cool confidence, but eventually everyone at the table turned to her, though as Toph's Chewbacca-like hair turned to face the water bending woman, it only seemed to make the scene all the more comical.

"So Toph, how long have you been living with… Zuko, here?"

"I've been here about three weeks now," she said quietly. How long it had been specifically was uncertain… these previous weeks had just seemed to fly by. It could have been well over a month and a half for all _she_ knew.

"Well, it's good to know you're doing well…" Katara said with a somewhat forced smile, and Zuko felt himself tense up.

"Oh really?" the shorter black-haired woman asked, a slight snide tone coming through.

Aang moved his stony glare off of his prior nemesis and shifted it to one of concern. "What are you talking about, Toph? You're our friend…"

"Who you _left_ as soon as the war was over."

Zuko's incredibly and super-intelligent thought process of the moment? 'Uh-oh…'

Both the avatar and water bender blinked. "'Left'… what do you mean by that? We had business to do…"

"Oh yeah… that old excuse again…" Toph muttered. "I know you're the avatar, Aang, but that doesn't give you an excuse to act like an _ass_…"

Grey-brown eyed baldy's eyes went even bigger at the comment. "Huh?"

"Well, after the war was over, everyone went their separate ways. You said 'oh hey, let's visit'…"

"Yeah, you never wrote or came to visit us…" Katara defended.

"I _can't_ write, **stupid**," she snorted, "and I can't just take a trip on a _flying fluff ball_ to visit some friends, Sugar queen…"

Zuko choked on his tea.

Toph continued, her voice coming from beneath her mane of hair taking away the serious anger in her voice. "Nothing personal, _avatar_, but the three of you ditched me, never spoke to me again, really. My family disowned me, so I've been wandering around. I found princess here (she jerked a thumb in his direction,) and decided to settle for a while."

"But after what he did…"

"It's past, Aang…"

"**You're willing to forgive him for almost killing Suki?!**" Aang nearly outright roared.

"_She_ attacked _me_," Zuko snorted.

"So what?!" Aang continued. "That doesn't give you an excuse to burn half her body!"

The fire prince winced. "She took me by surprise, I didn't—"

A snort of fire came out of the avatar's nose as the shorter man rocketed up from his seated position. "See? He admits it!"

Zuko took a deep breath. "At that time, avatar, I was lost: I didn't know where my loyalties lay. But now I do, which is _against_ the remaining fire nation who still think it's their right to rule the world."

"But you—"

Toph sighed irritably as the dark-haired man attempted to rein his rising anger.

"I've already forgiven you for killing my father, Aang…" he said in a quiet tone. Dangerously quiet. "Think about that."

Chewbacca-girl snorted again, before following the retreating fire bender out of the kitchen. She paused at the doorway to say something, but then apparently decided against it. Instead, she moved her right arm up in a subtle, though firm motion. There was a sound of another painful connection of rock from the floor and flesh in the next split second, along with Aang's unmanly squeal of "AHHH!!! TWICE in ONE DAY?!?"

Ah, the small things in life.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"You're going to give him retarded kids, you know."

Toph snickered at the comment slightly. "He deserves it. I just hope he doesn't treat his kids like that, if he ever has em."

"Power corrupts, after all…"

A cool breeze drifted across the outside deck. The back entrance to the inn was never used by customers, so neither had to worry about looking presentable for the public. Although…

Zuko sneaked a glance at Toph, then snickered slightly.

"What's so funny?"

He chuckled. "Don't worry about it. It's nothing."

"I can tell you're lying," she sing-songed, flashing a cheeky grin that flashed a subtle message of "_I'll hurt you if you don't tell me_" at him through the bushes of hair.

"It's just that your hair looks like a static poodle-bear."

"Oh, is that it?" she said. "Well, sorry, but I can't enjoy the sight myself."

He let out a snort of mirth, before moving towards her, moving his hand around the static fluffy mass. "Feel that?"

She suddenly snickered. "Is it really sticking out that far?"

"Yup. A cute little poodle-bear hairstyle," he chuckled.

She froze slightly at the comment. "Cute?"

He paused, looking at her with a quizzical expression, feeling slightly stupid in the next moment after realizing she probably wouldn't catch that. "Well sure."

A dull thud swiftly followed, and Zuko gave a flabbergasted look from his current position on the floor. "Why'd you punch me?"

She smirked underneath her plethora of shagginess. "You made me feel girly again."

An annoyed snort was heard beneath Zuko's own tassels of long hair, and he roused himself up with an arm, Toph chuckling all the while.

Abruptly, her chuckles came to a complete stop, and after a pause, she fluffed her hair a bit. "Something just occurred to me…"

"What's that?"

"If Aang and Katara are… do you think we can deal with… little Aang's and Katara's…?"

Zuko blinked. "Isn't it a little early to be thinking about that?"

"They've been hitting off since they were thirteen, I wouldn't be surprised…" Toph involuntarily shuddered. "Still, ONE Aang was a bit much to handle…"

"I wonder if all air benders were like that…I thought they were MONKS…"

"Not the pure kind, apparently…"

They both chuckled again, letting the chilling breeze wash over them, rinsing away all thought for a brief moment and allowing nothing other than the crisp air to fill their senses.

Silent, serene…

And truly peaceful.

0o0o0o0o0o0

It was later that day that Geeva finally showed her face once more inside the inn, much to Terron's joy. She shuffled in awkwardly, her eyes towards the floor, completely avoiding everyone with her only response a silent scream for space with her eyes.

She'd never looked so empty, Zuko commented inwardly.

The rest of the day fell into its usual (although admittedly quieter) routine as usual: Zuko helped gather firewood and work the furnace, Toph assisting him along the way, even helping bend metal pipes into place when they were out of alignment.

Iroh finished his tea early, and started arrangements the weekly "music night" (including the floogie horn trio) and other activities, everything falling back into a more or less peaceful atmosphere.

Katara and Aang went into town for supplies, something about a "possible new person to take care of"…

WAS there another Aang coming? Zuko suddenly thought. Good gods, that was one of the last things the world needed right now…

"OW!"

"What is it with you and dropping axes on your foot?"

"I spaced out, ok?!"

"Yeah, yeah."

Zuko grumbled, and Toph smirked once more. At least there was entertainment to be found in lumber work, she mused.

The merry atmosphere only lasted another moment, however, before both of the figures froze in place, both of their gazes snapping towards the trees.

With a quick motion Toph sent a wave of earth towards the trees, and three hooded figures suddenly flipped nimbly down from a tree, which toppled with the impact of the earth.

"Long time no see, Zuzu…" A feminine voice purred, and Zuko felt his fists tighten with silent rage.

"Azula…"

"Is this how you treat all of your guests at the inn here? No wonder it's in shambles, you people here have NO tact… or _taste _for that matter…"

"I'd say it's nice to see you and your harem again little miss _**flaming princess**_, but that would be a lie…" Toph snorted, reasserting her low stance.

The three hoods fell from the heads of their owners, the three golden-eyed women staring at the exiled fire prince and ruffled fire bender with mixed expressions. Ty Lee had grown into quite the woman, although her childish glee still shone in her amber-brown eyes, that shallow loyalty to the fire nation and her unwillingness to go against Azula never wavering for an instant.

Mai looked on with a look of scorned feeling of betrayal, her cold eyes glaring daggers at the man she had once thought she'd loved, her hands already up her sleeves, no doubt ready to pull out a flurry of knives at a whisper. Cold fury… the perfect description of the perfect fire nation assassin.

"Well Zuzu, it seems you haven't betrayed our father not once but twice in the long run… lying about the avatar's death, attempting to hide it from our father, betraying us in the last moment to help the avatar mortally wound our father…"

She shook her head from side to side, almost like a sadistic mother to child. "Tsk, tsk, Zuzu…"

Her utter lack of remorse for their father, that look in her eyes… this wasn't some plan to recruit him: this was a last-ditch effort at revenge. Even from this distance, Zuko could feel Azula's inner fire tainted with rage and fury.

The same cold fury that needed to end in fire benders. It was the true heart of fire bending… the source of its power, and a power that needed to be snuffed out and never used again.

Not even the Avatar had seen the highest levels and horrors of fire bending…

Zuko took a ready stance, his fingers flexing at any possible movement.

Azula outright laughed. "Oh please, Zuzu… do you honestly think I only brought Ty Lee and Mai with me?"

There was a residual boom with some screaming, and to Zuko's horror, an entire wall of a building in the village collapsed, encased in flames. Fire nation soldiers erupted flames out of their fists, a sort of terrible glee in their eyes at this last bit of revenge they were able to enact for their fallen brothers of war. They were the last of their beloved country still under the divine rule of their monarchy, and they would stand up until they died.

War was never truly over until the little skirmishes stopped. That was the way the world worked. And for the fire nation, that meant putting your all, and your life, into defeating the enemy until every last ember of the fire nation's heart had been extinguished.

In the distance he could see air blasts and lashes of water: the avatar and the water peasant were probably duking it out there, but there seemed to be too many soldiers for them to…

"Go help twinkle toes!" Toph's shout invaded his thoughts rudely. "I can handle this lesbian team!"

"But…"

"GO!" And to stress her point, her fist smashed into the ground, making the trio roll out of the way.

Zuko snorted and ran towards the others, and he could hear Azula chuckle behind him. Toph was indeed powerful, and had probably only grown more so as time went on since he had last fought her… but just how strong WAS she?

As soon as the civilians were safe, he was going to return to Toph, and then burn some SERIOUS ass…

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Iroh sighed at the spilled tea on the counter as he sent a basic fire blast at an enemy soldier. Why did such beautifully delicious things have to go to waste?

He grabbed a metal tea pot from the stove, grateful that there was still some of his orgasmically tasteful ginseng tea, however before he could use it to pour a glass for himself, a stray fire blast severed the connection between handle and pot. The pot holding the glorious concoction of taste fell to the floor, spilling its contents everywhere as a stray soldier stumbled in.

The solder slipped, and Iroh sighed, giving the man a swift kick to give him a speedy and slick exit.

Oh, the small woes in life…

0o0o0o0o0o0o

Zuko struck a soldier in the helmet, denting the metal and sending the poor man careening into a nearby tree with a thickening crack of wood, metal, and bone. "UNCLE! HELP THE VILLIAGERS!" He roared over the explosions and screams.

"But… tea!!" came the hesitant response.

"JUST DO IT!"

Zuko tripped another man onto his head, before blasting his way through the doors of the inn, Iroh over the loss of his beloved tea and helping get the panicking residents out, the outskirts of the building already beginning to flame and flicker. The entire wooden structuring of the building wouldn't last long.

"Move!" Zuko commanded, urging them on with his hands and fighting off soldiers in the way with deft back hands. More of the building was beginning to burn, and a particularly heavy quake from behind the inn revealed that the fight between Toph and the three little bitches was still going strong.

"That's all of them!" Iroh shouted, before running out of the collapsing building, Terron following closely behind as swiftly as his portly form would allow.

Zuko blew a sharp breath, and the flames parted for them by the doorway, the trio of portly men and muscular youth making a beeline out of the place they once called home, an intense wave of heat hitting their backs as the entire building began to fall apart.

Soldiers flew left and right from Katara's and Aang's attacks, many crumpling sickeningly as they connected with snow-encompassed trees and sides of buildings, but there were just too many…unless he…

There was suddenly a shrill scream behind the burning inn with an explosion of lightning, and all concern for everything within Zuko vanished…

"TOPH!" His feet moved before he even commanded them to, snow flying out beneath his cheap shoes, entire body screaming to move faster.

To feel a fire's heat…no… "NO!"

Toph knelt on the snow-covered earth, her entire body heaving with exertion. Ty Lee snickered close by, Azula's eyes crazed and bloodthirsty, Mai unconscious on the ground nearby.

"I hit a vital point in your ankle, Tophie-poo… And a lot of other ones too, Heehee! You're not gonna be able to use that foot for quite some time…" she sing-songed.

"Zuzu? Awww, you came to see the death of your girlfriend… how sweet…" She cackled maniacally, hand glowing with blue flames.

Zuko's entire body tensed, his left hand forming a hand sign he had hoped to never use again, but for her…

He would _not_ let Azula feel the warmth off of any other's fire ever again…

Toph staggered away weakly, for once looking truly helpless. Without a solid stance, earth bending was nothing. It truly was the best technique to use against someone so heavily reliant on earth bending. The young woman seemed to know this, her face a defiant glare, but even in her sightless eyes he could detect the slightest twitch of despair.

But for fire… oh no, he'd make sure his fire connected. With a roar he brought his hand back, hand beginning to spark with untold power, just before—

The entire world slowed.

The air itself quivered around them, and the sibling fire benders stopped their techniques to see the avatar, tattoos and eyes glowing like the harshest stars, rise up in a tornado of snow and wind.

Aang let loose and inhuman scream, and an impact like a gigantic sound wave knocked everyone off their feet, just in front of the enormous wall of snow.

That idiot, the avalanche was going to…

He cursed inwardly, rolling with the sudden onrush of wind over to Toph. Azula only looked on in horror, the tidal wave of frost approaching them faster than they could ever hope to outrun.

Toph struggled to sit up, completely unaware of what was going on, only to find herself pushed back down by Zuko's body.

"What are you--?!"

"Shut up and save your air!" he commanded, pressing her into the earth.

The onrush of snow came, Azula and Ty Lee screaming as they were sent reeling backwards in the wave, pieces of debris surfing along the snow. The snow washed over Zuko, and what wasn't blown away was encased in a silent darkness. Only seconds later, all that remained was a brilliant plain of snow. The village was completely gone.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

**I feel sooooo evil, but I had to post what I had in what little free time college allows me :(**

**R&R and I'll update as soon as possible!**

**Dak**


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Ok, first and formost, I would like to apologize to all of my loyal readers who have been patient with me. Scorched Earth has now hit 140 reviews!! Woohoo!

Yes, I know, no thanks to my updates (or lack thereof).

I would also like to wish this story a happy birthday, since it has been in existence for a year, and still hasn't been finished (grumbles).

College sucks, have the roomie from hell, didn't have a computer for two weeks and the computer I DID get is a Mac that I can't figure out how to use…

**Yeah. Quite the trip, hehe.**

**For those of you looking for a lemon in this story, I have decided to repost this story onto or as a separate story with the lemon in THAT, rather than have it here on ffnet. Too many young un's, and I don't want my account deleted either, hehe.**

**Anyways, I hope that this little bit of fluff and humor will make up for my long absence. And without further ado, enjoy!**

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Snow erupted for a brief moment, a small burst of flame blasting apart more than 10 feet of the hard-as-concrete avalanche in a single blow, a single hand gripping the side of the newly made hole and heaving a coughing and sputtering Zuko from its depths.

On his back was a bewildered Toph, her sightless eyes portraying rare look of slight alarm.

"What… the hell… happened?" Toph muttered, collapsing in a heap as Zuko unceremoniously dumped her onto the hardened snow next to him.

"The avatar seems to have had a bad day," the fire prince coughed, moaning slightly as his arms protested any movement.

"This was from _**Twinkle**_ _**Toes**_?!" she snorted.

"It seems that the avatar… (cough) hasn't slacked off in his training much…"

They both panted in silence, the light snow that was remaining from the avatar's incredible attack falling lightly about them, falling to join their brothers on the ground below and beginning to cover the two panting individuals laying face up in the snow.

"Hey, Princess?"

He felt his eye twitch. "Yes?"

"Question…"

"Go for it," Zuko said, his breathing returning to normal. After all, fire bending relied on the breath, and trying a high level fire technique with no air to start with was difficult, much less under many feet of freezing snow.

"How strong are you?"

He blinked, and then snorted. "What the hell kind of question is that?"

Rolling over to face her with a face half contorted in male defensive posturing, his expression immediately softened when he actually saw her blush.

"Well… er…"

"What?" he half snapped.

"I… kinda can't move my legs…" she muttered embarrassedly under her breath. He blinked at her stupidly, and she half cursed under her breath. "You're…" She sighed irritably. "You're going to have to carry me."

Zuko blinked twice in a comedic pause, reviewing recent events that would cause her immobility as Toph's face only ripened like a tomato with each passing second. Ah yes, Ty Lee's hit…

An embarrassed snort oh Toph's behalf brought him back to reality. "Are you… actually asking for help?" he asked tentatively.

"YES!" she blurted. "I can't move my legs, so I can't really walk, okay?!"

He gave a slight snort in response, heaving himself up from the snow and looping arms underneath her knees and lower back and lifted her up in a quick scoop.

She squeaked slightly, but he didn't take note of it as he held the small pale woman in his arms, shifting his weight to achieve the new balance.

It felt… strangely comfortable…

A cold breeze ripped at their clothing abruptly, causing Toph to huddle closer cutely, and Zuko couldn't help but snicker slightly at the girly movement. She clenched her fist as if to punch him, before she (regretfully, it seemed) unclenched her fist and settled back down.

The fire prince gave a slight sigh, before looking around the area to get some even _slight_ inkling as to what in the hell he was supposed to do next.

Aang's little instanta-ski-slope had buried everything in the immediate area, Zuko realized to his chagrin. Turning his head from side to side in a broad arc, only the snow-topped trees (nearly eye level, he noticed,) rewarding his scouring eyes.

"So… why aren't we moving?"

Face morphing into a scowl, Zuko "accidentally" slipped holding Toph in response, before giving a gruff "Because I have no idea where to go."

There was a silence, made slightly awkward by the fact that neither was moving in the cold and Toph could feel her unbidden growing urge to crawl up inside the shirt of her "savior" for the heat it promised. "Well, you _could_ find some shelter so we don't freeze our butts off…"

Zuko snorted at his own stupidity, before trudging off in a random direction, Toph held tightly in his arms.

He couldn't see any other footprints around… it hadn't been _too_ long since the avatar had dropped the giant dandruff heap and buried the town, so either they were dead or Iroh and the water bending brat had saved the villagers in some fashion.

Looking to one side, he saw a gigantic scorch mark in the shape of a tea cup where the snow had stopped short amidst some rubble.

Most likely the latter…

Giving a slight snort of amusement, he continued onwards, Toph's added weight (although admittedly very light,) pushing him farther into the snow than he would have liked. He paused a moment, before looking back over towards some stray parts strewn about the area, a look of confusion on his face.

Then, a look of annoyance crossed his scarred features. Of course, _that's_ why there were no footprints… that thrice-damned water bending peasant had probably covered their tracks to prevent Azula from following, if his detestable sister had survived…

Of course, that _also _meant that he and his little "bundle of joy" wouldn't be able to find them very easily either… from what he could tell, Toph couldn't "see" very well at the moment, and the 10-foot layer of snow wasn't going to make it very easy to rejoin with Iroh and the others by tracing their footsteps through the earth…

It was then that it hit him: they were utterly alone. No food or water other than the heaps of snow about, although that snowstorm might have…

His thoughts were cut short as his "passenger" shivered strongly, before cursing her own weakness. Her clothing was wet and her lips were showing the slightest hint of blue…

Giving himself a mental slap on both cheeks, he continued onwards into the woods in a search for shelter, which was quickly becoming desperate.

An hour passed, and Toph was curling tighter and tighter in his arms, her small form's shivering now uncontrollable in her wet clothing.

Zuko looked hopelessly around for something other than these darned tree tops, his brow furrowing as another frustrated growl escaped his lips. Taking a great intake of breath, he blew a small fireball into the snow, and was rewarded with a miniature tunnel flowing down into its depths. Swiftly sliding down the side with Toph, he deposited her in the bottom, melting the snow a bit more and with a sigh of relief noticed that the frozen water nearly instantly re-melted, securing the sides of the tunnel.

Scrambling back out, he scrounged the surface of the snow, grabbing bits of tree branches that had been blown off, and gathering them into piles in seemingly random locations.

"I don't like being _deposited_, you know..." Came a frustrated, albeit comical response from within the tunnel.

Under normal circumstances, seeing Toph in a bit of humility would have caused a snort of laughter, if not a small snicker, from the otherwise stoic prince, but the tone of her voice was nothing short of frightening to him. Her usually steady, erupting heat was enough to cause his "heat sense" to go bonkers. But now... Now, that heat was dwindling, the chattering of her teeth apparent through her words as her small body struggled to maintain its heat.

She would die soon unless he could help it. They both knew that, and here she was cracking jokes...

What a woman, he mused.

Swiftly returning with a small armful of wood, it was too meager to start a good fire with. It would burn out in a matter of hours, and the most important goal that he needed to accomplish was to dry out their clothes. Wet clothes invited hypothermia; something that Toph herself was only moments away from.

Cursing under his breath as Toph shivered in a darkened corner, he sent a blast of flame at the tiny branches. He snarled as it met a layer of caked-on ice, meeting the layers with blast after blast of flame, each more desperate than the last as he could see Toph slowly collapsing under the cold.

"DAMN IT ALL!!!" He screamed, only a tiny ember the revealing itself from his efforts. Leaving his work behind, he crawled over to Toph, pressing his body against her own. She tried to shove him away weakly, obviously surprised at the action, but another huge shiver running through her body worked against her, and she slumped against the frozen ground.

Snorting irritably, Zuko swiftly took off his shirt and breathed another miniature fireball, promptly drying, if at least drying his wetted clothing.

"W-what are y-you d-d-doing?" She stuttered.

"Our clothes are wet, we won't be able to get warm this way." He stated simply, and began to tug at her shirt.

She immediately stiffened, and attempted to stop him. "W-what?!"

"Your clothes are wet, take them off and I can dry them."

A blush met her cheeks, as she tried to pull her shirt back down once again, but his hand, warm and gentle yet forceful, grabbed her milky fingers in his own.

"Strip."

She snorted mentally at how crude that had sounded, but her strength drained and fading from the cold, she felt her shirt being pulled over her head, and with a quick breath of weak fire, she felt a warm mist of water in the air about them.

She felt the cold shivering come about in full swing, and she reached for her shirt expectantly, before she was swiftly pulled into her the lap of the fire prince, earning a very un-Toph-ly squeak. Before she could protest further, however, a warm blast from the prince's mouth washed over her, instantly drying out the wrap she wore around her chest and part of her pants.

Her body shuddered at the sensation, instantly leaning towards him subconsciously with the additional heat, curling up against him as she found her head nuzzling (against her will, she told herself) into the crook of his neck.

For a split-second eternity, they just sat there, before Zuko pushed her off lightly onto the slightly-dryer snow and pulling his own shirt on.

"We need some more firewood…" He said awkwardly, pulling away from her. "I won't be long…"

"Oh…"

She heard him depart, feeling strangely helpless.

And for the first time since meeting this new Zuko, she truly felt alone for a moment.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Fumbling around…well, blindly, she managed to find her discarded shirt, and slipped it on.

Sheesh, her shirt smelled like him, she noticed, hugging herself to try to absorb as much heat as she could from it. Mentally, a part of her wanted to scoff at how absurdly love struck she was, (not that she would admit she was love struck in the first place,) but another part of her just scoffed back and relished in the heat she was getting.

The heat slowly faded, and she padded on her hands and knees in the depths of their "burrow." The strong blasts of freezing air quickly told her where the entrance was. There was, however, a very slight problem.

As spacious as the interior was, it wasn't nearly large enough for the both of them to sleep, unless Zuko intended to…

Sightless eyes narrowing slightly, she huffed. Men…

Although her feet were still fairly useless, her crawling around yielded some results about the landscape underneath them. She may not have had the stance that earth bending usually required, but she did have her determination, dammit! Determination that was fueled by a very cold breeze wafting up her pants right now…

Punching the ground a few times, the frozen grass and layers of mud were more stubborn, and she cursed slightly at how slow it was to move. But, soon enough, it shoved downwards into a deeper hole: one that would not melt above their heads, she mused.

She continued onwards, pushing back the earth a good 10 feet into the ground in a general spiral, making sure that a groove was at the top. Zuko was a body capable of generating a lot of heat, (she dismissed the innuendo within her thoughts,) but he would no doubt want to make a fire. A fire meant smoke, and without somewhere to go, smoke would kill them even faster than the suffocating cold around them.

"Toph?" An inquiring voice came from behind her, accompanied by shuffles down the snowy passageway.

"Down here!" She called back, punching the nearby frozen rock once more.

"What the hell did you…" he started, before he dropped what sounded like a large cluster of rocks and branches off to the side. "Oh… impressive…" He said, not trying to hide in the least the slight awe in his voice.

"Thank you," she half-chirruped, crawling back over to a corner of the cave and sitting down with a plop. There was a pause, and she felt his eyes on her. "What? I'm not HELPLESS you know!"

"Well obviously," Zuko snorted. "It just amazes me that you can do this much bending even without a solid stance, is all."

Toph blinked. "Oh… How did you know about an earth stances?"

"Uncle knows a lot of stuff, if you can pry him away from tea for a while," Zuko chuckled, plopping down on the opposite side of the miniature cave and set about constructing a small fire at his feet, illuminated by a small fire balancing on his nose.

The comical scene was lost to Toph, who merely closed her eyes and listened to the rustle of his mildly-calloused hands snapping branches and putting them into a neat little pile.

The fire was lit swiftly, and in a nice warm rush, she felt the fire's flames all over her body.

They had no food.

Thanks to Aang's blizzard, they had no idea which way was where, and were completely lost no less than 5 miles from where they had previously made their home…

But at the moment… all Toph could think about was the steady warmth in front of her.

Zuko's hands stopped moving for an impossibly long second, before a slight sigh escaped his lips. "I'm not really sure what to do from here…" he admitted, his voice soft.

Toph's face fell, and another silence took their little "burrow," the unalloyed stillness only broken by the occasional pop of burning wood.

"Well… the village wasn't THAT big… but they weren't that small, either…" Toph said, half to herself and her companion lifted his head. "Considered most of them were civilians… I doubt they would have been able to get THAT far…and with Twinkle Toes, Sugar Queen, and your uncle, they should be fine."

"It's not _them_ I'm concerned about…" Zuko muttered, slouching against the rough side of the burrow. "We only made it half a day's walk because of our clothing situation…" She felt his eyes go to her feet, and she shuffled uncomfortably as she pulled her meager light clothing around herself indignantly

"HEY!" Toph snorted huffily. "I like to be able to see when I'm walking, so I don't wear shoes with soles!"

"I got that, but because of Ty Lee's hit, you can't 'see' at all, can you?"

Toph opened her mouth to retort, before she shook her head. _Sheesh, I must look like a little girl…_

Zuko sighed once more. "You've already told me you can't walk. So, that means that for traveling, I'm going to have to carry you, both for the sake of transportation and to keep you from getting hypothermic…"

"HEY!" the blind girl outright shouted. "I may not be at my peak, but I'm no-where NEAR helpless, alright?!"

"Yes, you are helpless. At least in some ways…" Zuko snorted.

"No I'm—"

"Earth bend!"

"W-what?" She blinked, despite herself, somewhat bewildered at the sudden request.

"Make a hole in the ceiling so that we can see sunlight. Now!" his voice demanded, and she felt him shift into a crouch, apparently ready to dodge an action on her part.

"But that will cave in the entire cavern!" she retorted, peeved by his obvious obliviousness.

"It wouldn't for a master earth bender," he pointed out. "And as you've said, you're the greatest earth bender in the world. And if not the most powerful, certainly the most skilled."

"Don't be sarcastic with me, Princess…" Toph glowered. "We don't need that right now."

She felt him pause in movement for a moment. "It wasn't sarcasm, it was the truth. Didn't you feel it?"

Thinking back on it for a moment, she realized that she hadn't even been paying attention. "Say it again…" she said cautiously.

An intake of breath, and then his smooth voice filtered into her ears.

"I, Zuko, exiled prince of the fire nation, firmly believe that Toph Bei Fong is the most powerful earth bender on earth."

She paused, before a slight blush tinged her cheeks. "You… you really think that, don't you?"

"You would have been able to tell if I was lying, wouldn't you?" Zuko snorted once more. "But, you're also…" He waited a moment, obviously trying to choose his words carefully. "…vulnerable. You can't walk and can't earth bend, and thanks to the clothes we're wearing, we can't travel far before we freeze again."

She didn't answer, just curling into a slight ball and trying to absorb as much heat as she could from the flames.

"I can warm you up every so often," he continued, "but that takes energy…"

And they had no food, much less any idea where to find it during the dead of winter.

"A lot of it?" she half whispered.

She felt him nod, then slump against the wall. "We only hunted in the fall. All of the game will be either hibernating or… gone…" Rough hands ravaged through his long locks, slightly grimy from contact with the burrow's walls. "We're going to have a hell of a time finding food here…"

Toph felt her face fall against her will, before she shuffled around the fire next to him. "True, but since when has life _not_ been hell?"

She heard a snort of mirth from him as he sent another small jet of fire into their miniature fireplace. "I guess just take it one step at a time, huh?"

The earth bender nodded, and to her surprise she felt his arm wrap around her, pulling her closer to him. And while for a moment, she wanted to retort and resist, that urge was quickly drowned and suffocated as she just sighed and leaned into his warmth.

Worries could wait until tomorrow. For the moment, it was time for to be warm.

0o0o0o0o0o0

**Sheesh, this took longer than I thought.**

**Once again, terribly sorry about the delay, however now that I'm actually home, unemployed, and have a computer, I should (notice the "should") be able to write more frequently.**

**The story's in its final stretch, thanks for all the reviews, I'll update when I can!**

**Reviews appreciated as always!**

Dak 


	12. Chapter 12

College sucks

**College sucks. No free time to write, idiotic assignments and teachers, and other ever-so-fun things… (cue gag here)**

**Anyways, sorry for the amazingly long delay, I hope you all enjoy!**

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Azula was bent over a half-buried tree stump, bile having risen from her throat again and again over the past hour. She gagged as another wave of nausea hit her, and off to the side Mai couldn't help but gag a little herself at the sight.

Gods, she hated snow… it was so constricting and suffocating, and for a fire bending attack force, a worst nightmare. It drained troops of their energy, and from the few they had left… less than half they started with, the knife specialist scoffed, and there was no end to the complaints.

Add Azula in her current condition, and you had one hell of a time keeping your sanity.

And your _life_, for that matter…

Ty Lee was unusually quiet, shuffling her feet awkwardly and leaning on a tree. It hadn't taken long for Azula's fire bending to dry out their clothes from that avalanche, but the sheer power that their enemies had shown… when had the Avatar become _that_ powerful? Their soldiers were desperate for revenge; that was the only reason why they had even attempted revenge in the first place, but after having lost so many in just one battle…

Well, even the most loyal remnants of the once-great fire nation were now a bit hesitant about it. Herself included.

Their Fire Lady finally stopped convulsing, but hung partly limp over the tree stump. Her hair was disheveled and unkempt, falling over her eyes like some delusional beggar woman. Eyes crazed and paranoid, there was something…off…in her eyes when she turned around to see her two "best friends."

"We need to catch up to them," she coughed, a hand over her middle. "If we wait any longer we won't be able to—" She had another coughing fit, before she rushed over to the tree stump once more.

Mai wrinkled her nose at the noise, but Ty Lee stopped her shuffling and looked up at her leader. "Azula, don't you think we should… well… you know… slow down a bit for uh—"

"NO!" the royal screeched, her voice hoarse. "If we stop now we'll _never_ find them again you naïve bitch…"

Ty Lee winced, and Mai sighed irritably. "Azula, Lee's right: you really need to slow down a little. Is revenge really worth _that_ much to you? Is it worth…" Her gaze shifted to Azula's abdomen, after which the Fire Lady swiftly removed her hand from her stomach and returned her hair to its typical bun.

Some nearby soldiers looked over in interest, but the molten glint in their leader's eyes was back, and she smiled a strange smile somewhere between terrible glee and a wry smirk. "We are fire nation… the children of fire and the greatest civilization in the history of the world…" She rose, composing herself, and more soldiers who had been nursing their wounds stopped what they were doing to glance over at her.

"Are the children of fire so weak as to let this small setback stop us from our ultimate goal?!" she roared, and after a deathly silent moment, her soldiers bellowed their approval.

"We will never be extinguished! As long as a single ember remains, we shall always raise from the ashes to kill again! For your Fire Lady! For your nation! FOR THE ETERNAL FLAME OF OUR **WRATH**!!"

There was a roar of applause, and any previous pain was swiftly forgotten as cheers rang through the otherwise-silent forest.

Mai shifted uncomfortably and Ty Lee nodded obediently, her childhood chipperness completely gone. 6 years since Zuko had left… was this why had left them? Because their wills had begun to burn away their own entities?

_In order to feel a fire's warmth, something else must burn._

The assassin shuddered involuntarily as a strange tingle of fear went up her spine. There was something that was going to happen; of that much, at least, she was sure. But whether terrible or not, time would tell.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Ugh…morning breath…"

Toph blinked as Zuko pulled away from her, his nose wrinkled and coughing slightly.

"Excuse me?" she commented, her cramped limbs stretching and attempting to undo said cramps, but failing miserably.

"Your breath stinks," he muttered, before giving a slight yawn himself and scoffing at the pathetic state of the fire. It had been reduced to petty embers, and their firewood was low… he'd probably have to—

_GONK!_

He winced, his hands now shielding his face. "Hey! What the heck was _that_ for, huh?"

"You hypocrite! Your breath stinks too, you know! You were breathing on me all last night!" She sat there, fuming, and he couldn't help but chuckle at how cute she looked when she was angry, despite how cliché the description was.

"So why didn't you move then?" he snorted, not really taking notice of her ranting, although to say he didn't enjoy aggravating her would have been a flat lie. However at the moment, the fire prince had gone to sleep the night before on an empty stomach, and as such was highly irritable and his patience was exceptionally thin.

Toph scoffed, and for a moment she sent a sightless glare his way (which actually ended up being aimed at the wall, but he wisely chose not to comment on this…) and for a brief moment they fumed.

He submitted first, flopping onto the floor with an irritable sigh. He really didn't want to get up right now. Much less for her little rantings.

There was a long silence, Zuko letting out slight breaths of white smoke as Toph shuffled uncomfortably.

Toph eventually huffed and crawled over to her "savior," poking him with a fist. "I can't help unless I know what the hell we're planning…" she said softly.

"You don't need to tell me that." He replied snidely, scratching his dirtied scalp and grimacing at the feel.

She sighed. "Aren't guys supposed to _like_ being the knight in shining armor or something?" The earth bending master flopped down next to him, splaying her arms out as if she were some damsel in distress. "See? Toph is helpless!" she snorted, waving her arms about dramatically. "Come save the poor earth bender who can't do crap…"

"Do you really think that's the kind of girl that attracts me?" Zuko glowered at her, hoping that even if she couldn't see it, she'd feel it. "Those types of girls are prude, expect all guys to be the same, and they're irritating…" he rolled over, now turned away from her. He was definitely not in the mood for an argument like this.

"Well it seems to me that all guys are the same to an extent!" she retorted, waving her arms for emphasis in a mockingly stupid manner. "Oh look at me! I need to help save the world again! Come fuck me and I'll save it for you!"

There was an awkward silence when she realized what she had just said, coughing slightly to cover it up with a phrase that sounded suspiciously like "objectifying assholes…"

He couldn't help but give a snort of mirth at the comment, before he turned towards the entrance to the burrow and began crawling out. "I'm gonna take a look around. I'll be back soon," he said, not waiting to give Toph a chance to retort.

Last thing he needed was her even more cranky at him, he mused wryly.

The harshly crisp morning air nipped at his eyes as he exited the warm den, his face morphing into its typical scowl.

It would be a relatively simple task to find suitable firewood, he figured: many trees died in winter, leaving nothing behind but a dead shell behind. Unfortunately, he realized, all trees, both dead and alive, looked the same in winter.

Sighing irritably, he trudged through the snow, occasionally tapping a tree to tell what quality wood it possessed. On the fiftieth tree or so, he was surprised to get a hollow noise when his knuckles hit a part of the tree. His brow furrowed in confusion for a moment, before it suddenly hit him as to what it was.

Concentrating a small fire ball, he gradually burned away the wood until a high pitched protest was heard, and he heard some sort of animal scramble up the inside of the tree trunk.

A squirrel-bat?

Not willing to give up the opportunity, he sent another fire blast into the new hole, fire coursing through the center of the hollowed-out tree. Fire burst from a hole near the top of the tree with a small boom, and a medium-well squirrel bat rocketed from a hole and into the snow with a high-pitched squeal.

Zuko crouched to pick up the animal, wrinkling his nose at the slightly charred remains. It was still edible, but it was going to give them far worse breath than anything they had imagined previous.

Using a fire whip to cut off a few more pieces of fire wood, he trudged back to their den. At least they had _one _meal…

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Toph was never one to waste time when it was given to her freely. She was not the type of girl to fidget or twiddle her thumbs while some knight in shining armor would come to rescue her in the highest room of the tallest tower…

If that were the case normally, she'd earth-bend the damned embarrassment to modern architecture to rubble and then go her own way! All alone…

…Again…

She sighed bitterly as she flopped into a slightly more comfortable position. The female stereotypes… what was the purpose behind them, anyways? To make women feel more helpless and useless? To make them feel like…like… a _prize_ for men to fight over?

She had hardly ever even been _considered_ being a prize… she had been told that she was beautiful, but what use was an asset of yourself that you couldn't even experience? It was like a deaf person being able to sing beautifully. They could have had a voice that made angels weep and all that crud, but since they couldn't experience it, it would have made no difference to them, so they turned their attention towards something that THEY enjoyed while shutting out everything else.

Was that the real reason for all of these wars? It was bewildering to think of, but perhaps it was these single-track minds like that that truly led to all of this death and destruction… the lack of caring… not wanting to attempt and understand any other perspective than your own…

Just like most women refused to make a life for themselves, because society said they didn't have to do anything than sit and be beautiful and make babies for some shining knight that came bumbling in.

Just like how most men would only seek the beautiful docile women, because they didn't have to try to understand them…

She didn't really know why she was crying at this point… she shouldn't have cared. She shouldn't have cared that she'd probably never find a man because they would never truly understand her. She shouldn't have cared that she'd never be able to relate to stories told around the warmth of the campfire, gazing at the stars and sharing stories of beautiful things seen across the land.

She shouldn't have… shouldn't have…

Shouldn't have been crying over things she knew would never change.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Zuko cursed under his breath, holding the gruesome remains of the squirrel bat in one hand as he trudged through the snow. All that searching and energy… and for what? A pathetic little runt of a meal that was… crispy… now.

It didn't help that the snow seemed to be getting deeper with each step. Had he even come from this way?

Shit.

The sky was too cloudy to even get back by the position of the sun… He sighed bitterly, taking a bite out of his crispy prey. If only he had—

"Ack!"

Completely knocked off of his feet, he saw stars as his head cracked on a tree root, his back falling onto the compacted snow with a dull thud. Shaking his head to clear the stars, his blurry vision solidified on the perplexing sight of a moving snow mass.

No… not moving snow… something was burrowing UNDER the snow!

Staring in complete bewilderment, he stared as the mound zipped around the winter forest floor, occasionally bumping into a log or some other solid obstacle with a dull thud accompanied by a high squeak.

Zuko shook his head before scrambling after it. Something moving under the snow COULD mean a suitable meal… maybe a rabbit… hell, he'd have taken a badger-rat if that's what this was!

Anything to save Toph…

Scrambling after it, he slipped and tumbled as the strange creature beneath the snow seemed to follow no particular path, zipping and looping in strange loops and circles in aimless patterns. His frustration mounting, he spat small fire blasts at the moving mound, the little bursts of flame sizzling pathetically when they hit the snow.

Tripping over a long, he fell face-first into the snow, his legs wilting to fall to the ground soon afterwards. Sighing, he spat out a mouthful of snow and rose his head above the ground as the moving snow mound moved in front of him and a head popped out.

A _human_ head. Or at least human-_ish_.

Giant bug eyes adorned what appeared to be an aged man's face, engraved with countless lines of age around his mouth and framing his brow. A long hooked nose drooped almost down to his lips as he blinked his freakishly huge eyes and stared at Zuko quizzically. Zuko himself could only blink in a stupefied silence as this impossibly small man cocked his head to one side and blinked again, raising a gnarly hand to scratch his balding scalp. To Zuko's disgust, a few flakes of…something… came off as he did so as the little odd man continued to stare.

"And what might be YOU doin' out 'ere, lad? Get a lil' lost, have ye?"

"Uhh… yeah… my friend and I…"

"Oh, have ye a little missus that ye be carin' for? Aww, such a gentleman ye are…"

"I didn't say tha—"

The little bug-eyed man's eyes widened impossibly larger as he seemed to come to a slight revelation. "Ah! She be pregnant, eh? That's why she's not with ye…" He suddenly vanished into the snow and burrowed about erratically in a strange pattern.

"Uhh…" Zuko said intelligently.

The snow erupted next to him and caused him to stagger back a few steps and trip over a protruding tree root.

"Eh?" The giant freaky eyes blinked again. "A bit easily scared, aren't ye? Well, no matter. If your missus is expectin', we'd best be gettin' 'er some food, eh?" He scratched himself again, this time through the meager brown rag he called a shirt. "Where she be, eh? Lead me to 'er! Ol' Wark'll help out de poor lil' damsel in distresses!"

"Well… er… Wark… she's not—"

"Where she be where she be?!" Wark asked, his voice almost like a whine now.

Zuko sighed. There was obviously no reasoning with this little nutjob. But if he DID have food like he said… "Follow me."

Wark clapped his hands in glee, before plunging into the snow and zipping about randomly again. Zuko continued to walk, occasionally hopping to avoid his new companion's erratic movements.

It took about an hour to return to the burrow, and by that time Zuko's eye was twitching so much he could hardly see straight. He didn't know how this little man could be so energetic for such an extended period of time.

It was for Toph, he reminded himself. As long as she got better, this would all be worth it.

0o0o0o0o0o0

"'Wark'?" Toph asked, bewildered, from her position of riding piggy-back on Zuko's shoulders.

"Wark be me name, an' savin' damsels be me game!" The smile the bug-eyed freak gave Toph made her nauseous.

"Do you honestly expect me to trust this human badger-mole?!" she hissed to Zuko.

"No, but if he's willing to give you food, why argue with him?" the fire prince snorted back, following the once-again senseless movements of their "savior" as best he could.

"He thinks I'm _pregnant_…" Her strained voice came through clenched teeth, and it was quite obvious that she was trying her best to not strangle Zuko with her grip around his neck.

"So you'll get special treatment," he retorted. "Look, I couldn't find any food, so this is our best hope of survival for the moment, ok?"

He heard her sigh of defeat, before she relaxed against him slightly. "Fine… but if he tries to feel the 'baby,' there's no guarantee he's not gonna have a boulder between his legs."

He chuckled at the comment before trudging onwards, their guide finally zipping into a hole between two tree roots.

If she was joking around, that meant that she had to be feeling better. And that, in itself, was enough to put a smile, regardless of how small, on his face.

Toph was safe for now. And that was all that mattered.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

**Holy crap, that was a long break. I'm VERY sorry to my readers… art school sucks uberly, and it took forever just to find tidbits of time in which I could write. I've been able to write about a page a week before I passed out from lack of sleep (animation major… no sleep for me) but here's the latest installment!**

**In five weeks summer will start. And I will have a job, but it will still be far easier for me to update then.**

**Until then, TTFN, I'll update whenever I can!**

**Dak**


End file.
